GG's New Member
by Z-ro
Summary: When the last mission comes to an end, Jules finally tells Gum and Beat the truth about Z-ro's name, while Z-ro kills the last of his demons. please read and review
1. Faith and Trust

GG's New Member

A Fan fic by 

Z-ro

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Author's Note:

Ehe;; I finally got off my lazy rear and did some grammatical checks, oh and thanks Pyro, after reading this so many times didn't even notice the misspelling of netrium.

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Part: 1GG's New Member

chapter 1 : Trust and Faith

"What the hell?" The boy glanced up at the sign over the entrance to the park. All he could do was raise an eyebrow before spraying over the sign that prohibited netrium skates and graffiti. "Now that I know where I am, what should I do for the next few hours." The kid looked at his watch. "Man, I guess I should get a feel for the town." he rolled right in front of a volunteer policeman who was patrolling the park. "Uh, hi!" the kid said cheerfully. He turned around and began to skate away.

"Hey you, what are you doing with netrium skates in the park." The officer wore solid brown uniform, and a large tag saying who he was. the kid briefly wondered if anyone took this guy seriously. he was just a scrawny pale little person. _Of course my brother and his group are almost twice the size of any normal person. That will distort what I think of anyone that might be big. _The kid thought to himself. The volunteer policeman didn't like the look the kid gave and readied his nightstick. The kid shook his head and slid off his headphones that have been blaring in his ears. 

"These are not netrium skates, I am sure even a rent a cop like you can see that." He made sure that his voice didn't crack under the syllables. _Damn Japanese is a pain in the ass to learn._ He thought in irritation. _Guess the shades didn't give away that I am Ameran. _He thought to himself. The rental cop came at him and the kid simply moved to the side at the last moment. The cop got up from his stumble and began to chase him out of the park. "Man why are you so riled up?" The kid said in his best slang. He skated backwards easily remembering where all of the obstacles were from just skating around earlier. When he came up to a rising bar he knew it from the sloping hill near the fountain that entered his line of site. "What's wrong? Am I going to fast for you?" the kid taunted. He waved to the rent a cop then reached to his side and grabbed the up coming light pole and spined around it increasing his speed then jumped into a low grind backwards on a upstairs hand bar to a street light. "See ya later" he said cheerfully.

The rent a cop smiled and said "Your out of bar." With that he lunged at the kid. The kid smiled then balanced on foot then suddenly when he met the traffic light post he began to go up it and over to the other side of the busy city street. The rent a cop could only see in slow motion as he crashed into the traffic signal light post.

Dizzily, the volunteer cop got up and said out loud, "Who was that?"

He bladed through half the city before he found a place he decided to call his spot, it extended through the concrete hills of upper Shibuya-cho the artificial park half a mile down the way. Sharp eyebrows drew up when people ran from him saying something about G's. The youth didn't give it much thought and began to grind down the railed walkways.

The kid had enough of the screaming bystanders and went up to higher ground freely trying tested grinding lanes. Rotating, and grinding backwards, the kid made his way to the park where he had left his bag full of cans earlier...

Cherry blossoms were just ending their bloom season and their fragrance was heavy in the air. The park seemed to absorb all the noise of the busy city and only a few bird marked the line between the city and the park. The young boy started his tag with a red can, shaking and spraying sounds echoed in the open alley. A clanging came from his wrist and the kid adjusted the wrist-guard that seemed more of a decoration then actual protective gear. Switching cans, he quickly sprayed a symbol of a Z embossed with a "ro" inside the line of a rhombus that crossed along the middle of the Z. Dancing the whole time to music that was blaring in his ears. Headphones were hidden behind long black hair, styled into spikes. The kid wore loose fitted long jean shorts, a red cap and narrow silver shades along with a white t-shirt and an unbuttoned short sleeved over shirt. As soon as he finished tag, he left down the stairs that led into the outer park entrance in a hurry. The whole time he was singing a song in English. 

Two rudies looked at the handy work and smiled, "Hmmm... It's a shame that we have to get rid of this, its kinda nice..." she gestured to the tag.

The other rudie smiled along with the comment, "Aw common, Mew, you thought that the little kid was just cute and didn't want to go down hard on his work ." He sighed when Mew poked at him coyly. "At least he sang in tune" he added thoughtfully.

She stuck out a tongue and said, "Your just jealous Garam." and began to spray over the logo of the kid. When they got out of the ally way, they looked and were surprised when half of the park was already tagged with the kids' logo.

"What the Hell?" Garam looked and was amazed at the speed the kid worked at. When Garam heard the call come in of a dispatch of cycles on the way, he glanced at the little kid do a 180 across the street and grind to a store backwards. With proficiency that rivaled Garam, the kid sprayed on the shopping window. Garam gave a sparing look at Mew and said, "I think I'll go get Beat, he'll want to see this kid. Then I need to get going, have to make sure that my family is getting along." Garam gave Mew a kiss and held her in his arms for a fraction of a second saying, "You be careful." before he left. She nodded remembering what had happened to him when he wondered by himself only days earlier. 

Mew moved up to higher ground and looked at what the kid was doing with pure amazement. Her stomach rumbled for a moment. _Damn food, nothing is keeping down these days... _

Mew spinned out her own can and began to shake it. As the kid moved around the street corner, she began to start her route. Mew heard the cops' frequency again and knew she had three minutes to get all of the kids' handy work out of the way before catching up to him.

Beat was hard-edged anticipation. The war with a new gang had placed most of the GG's on edge. Beat was the most high-strung of the lot. Only Beat knew the extent of damage the Stone Tears could do. _I'll be damned before I tell the group. _He thought to himself as he cleared another parked bus.

The rest did not know the half of the dangers they were placed in when they took the rival gang on. When he arrived at the scene with Cube and Yo-Yo in tow, Beat was surprised to say the least. Mew landed next to them out of breath. "Man this kid has stamina! He finally slowed down when he saw I was going over his stuff. He's coming over here now."

Just as she took in another breath of air, the kid landed next to them headphones blaring and was slightly blushing. He slid them off and took of his narrow shades. Beat's emotions evaporated in an instant. He looked at the kid. He was barely twelve. Beat remembered something that happened long ago and his eyes hardened. 

"Hey sorry, didn't mean to go on your turf, I just moved here to Shibuya-cho." The kid had a strange accent.

Good. Beat thought to himself. Beat did a quick glance at his clothes, most did not look like they were made on this side of the mountains. Beat stared into the kids' eyes and smiled. _He knows that he would get into trouble if he went onto someone else's turf at least. _The kid at a strange disarming air around him and Beat gradually softened his face.

Beat relaxed himself, this kid was not one of them. The kid looked at them all and then at 

their skates, "Hey you guys have the new netrium skates! I have been saving up for months for a pair of those!"

Beat looked at what the kid did to the site, brows raised. Beat glanced up at Mew and asked, "He did all of this on plain in-lines?" Mew panted. "Mew, what was the time on that?" 

Mew stood up and looked at the park and part of the commercial district. "Mmm... probably four minutes."

Beat smiled to himself. Maybe this kid can help us then."Kid what's your name?"

The kid smiled and said, "Z-ro, who are you?" Z-ro seemed relieved that he was not in too much trouble. Police he can handle, other gangs though... were a another story

Beat said, "I'm Beat, Leader of the GG's, this is Yo-Yo, and Cube, you already met Mew." each said a "hi" except of Mew who sat down to rest.

The kid surprisingly looked at each person levelly and said, "I really _am_ sorry bout that, I didn't see any tags anywhere so I thought I would remedy that problem." Everyone smiled.

"Onishima is the captain of the police here, the bastard is on a crusade to stop rudies like us. Doesn't work very well though. He had several inmates paint over the old stuff." Z-ro muttered an 'oh.' Beat looked up at Cube. All of three were waiting, expecting for him to do something. Beat cleared his throat and said, "Cube give him your cans. Z-ro can you spray this..." He sprayed on the billboard a large group of people dancing to a "v" shaped boom box. "on that bus," he pointed to the bus that just pulled up, "The wall next to the entrance of the park, and on the road at the intersection?"

Z-ro took the cans and his expression changed. He handled the can, lifting it up a little until it settled into his hand. He lifted it and gave a slight spray into the air. He looked at Cube and said, "You use these?" Z-ro shook the can and just gave a shrug. The kid looked thoughtful to what Beat had just said, "The road will be the hardest with the cops on alert but yeah I think I can do it." Z-ro began to put down the cans he was carrying.

Beat smiled and thought to himself _I am sure you can_. "Start by grinding down the this 

ladder to the rail, the bus should be your first target, and do some free styling, I've heard it's impressive."

"Is this a test?" Z-ro sounded kind of excited and settled into an easy skating stance.

Beat smiled and said, "Yeah I guess it is. Think you can handle being a GG?"

Z-ro smiled, confidently saying, "I think the question is can the GG's handle its' new member?" Beat smiled in approval. Instead of grinding down the ladder he leaned backwards off the edge of building they were on and jacked knifed is body to land on an hand rail then started his run.

Cube looked at the kids' grind down the wall across to the bus. "That was rude, what did you think he meant about the 'can' comment." 

Mew got up and looked at the cans the kid was using. "Um, Cube! Catch!" Mew tossed the can carefully to Cube. 

Cube reached out her hand and felt her hand fall under the weight of the can. "What the hell? this can must weigh at least a couple of kilo's." Beat took the can, it was in English. "huh, Three pounds." was all he said. _Z-ro is stronger than he looks. _Beat smiled in earnest relief. He knew the kid truly did just move here from somewhere else.

You know, it wasn't always like this, The leader of the GG's was watching the spectacle from under the railing of the overhead railway system. The kid grinded the side of a billboard to build up speed to go up the side of a building then bounced of it to the roof to get away from the cops. Mew was slightly bemused, Yo-Yo and Cube had both of their mouths hanging open. _I remember when in the beginning I was just the dumb kid in the goofy glasses barely able to grind down a rail. _Beat thought to himself. The kid jumped down onto a passing bus as he was being shot at. Then he launched himself from the forward moving buss past over the police blockade and over to his last tag on the street. _Where did I go wrong and start wanting to offer something like this to the little guy any way?_ Beat looked at the little... boy really, hardly 13. Beat told himself, _you should really help him before he gets caught._ Beat looked to the K-9 units that unleashed their dogs.

There were several dogs on the kids tail, and Beat could hear the kid make slight whimper/whining noises as he stopped at the top of a low truck take a glance at the whole area then began to grind down the side of the pick up then do a 720 across the street into a side grind of a bus he sprayed barely two minutes before, then landed on top of a moving car. When the car came to a stop at the red light, he used the momentum to jump to a rail trailing back in a low grind. He then proceeded to tag the squad car and the dog that was in it while passing by. 

Beat smiled to himself. Yo-Yo was openly laughing out loud and hollering, "Hey Beat, he tagged Onishima's chest! hahahahaaa!" ...and loving ever moment of it. 

Beat smiled and thought. That's why. He looked at Mew and Cube and said, " Lets go. He doesn't know when he should go when the gettin's good."

All three of them jump off the railing and caught up with the cops, Cube came up behind one of the slower ones and pinched his butt, "comm'on lover boy" she said silkily into his ear. It was enough for him to trip on the curb face flat down.

Beat caught up to the boy and said, "Your cutting it a little close there..."

The boy half smirked half grimaced and said, "Don't I know it. Sorry used to flame throwers not bullets." Beat looked at him questionly then decided not to ask. They were both grinding down a sidewalk rail that seemed to have been built just for grinding. When they entered the waterways they stopped. The kid handed back the cans to Cube and said "Thanks, those cans are weird, more pressurized, I see why you only carry so few of them."

Yo-Yo finally joined the group hooting and hollering. "That was great kid, where did you learn to grind like that. Your almost as good as Beat is." Yo-yo spoke a little louder than usual since there was water flowing at the bottom of the tube.

That is a good question Beat looked down at the boy and said, "Kid, where you from?"

"oh, I'm from New D.C." Beat caught something in his voice. _Reluctance?_

"New D.C.? What the hell are you doing over here? That's on the other side of the world, so no wonder your so good, where you apart of the Ghosts? High Rows? or the Free Flyers?" Cube asked excitedly. Beat looked at the kid with understanding now. Rudies may have originated from Tokyo-to but skaters originated from Amero. What was once call just called U.S.A..

The kid shook his head, and turned to Yo-Yo's slap on the back. "I was apart of none of them, my brother said he would not let me join until after I was fifteen, but I could understand, there are a lot of wars going on there, so I didn't mind." Z-ro looked to Beat. "So..."

Beat looked at the others all nodded. With a shrug Beat said, "Your in." Everyone cheered. and Yo-yo began to talk to the kid about the things he planed on showing him. Beat felt like he wanted to cringe at the last sentence Yo-yo said. _Great all we need is another Yo-yo._

Cube nodded past the tunnel they were walking and moved ahead, "The coast is clear." They moved out and headed for the garage. As they left, Beat touched Z-ro's shoulder. They both stopped and Beat spoke softly. "I want to thank you."

"For what" Z-ro's voice was a little confused.

"For reminding me why I still do this..." Beat gestured to the whole city. "For a while I have forgotten."

Z-ro looked at him then said, "Is it so bad here?" Shadows passed though his shaded eyes.

Beat was sharp enough to catch them and said more cheerfully. "Its not as good as it was but not as bad as it could be." It was Beats turn to have shadows of nightmares past reflect through his eyes. Z-ro nodded. They both understood each other before they even got to the garage.

Piranha and Slate were busy in the corner tipping the pinball machine trying to free up the stuck pinball. Tab was half passed out half recovering from a hangover, and Gum was Teaching Combo one of her favorite tags. Garam pulled up behind them as they entered the through the door. 

"Hey guys" Beat waved everyone around him. "This little man is Z-ro. Z-ro these are the GG's. Welcome to the garage kiddo."

Garam did a single glance at the kid as he came in the door and said, "Wow that was fast." He grabbed Beat after the announcement and asked, "Are you sure about this? The kid seems harmless enough but still." Beat flinched.

The leader of the GG's did a quick side-glance towards Z-ro as he sat down between the Mew and Piranha on the couch. Beat forced all fears out of his mind. He understood that Garam was as paranoid as he was about the Stone Tears. Piranha leaned over to pick something up and Z-ro blushed fruit levels of redness. That got a laugh from Mew and Cube and a small smile from Gum.

"I intend to find out tonight... I am sure that he isn't though." he lowered his head helplessly.

Everyone began to crowd around Z-ro. When Gum gave her introduction she went and sat next to Beat and began to listen to what the others were saying about the days events. Gum raised her eyebrow to some of it. Beat smiled wordlessly and nodded. Beat sighed and took of his goggles. dark brown eyes penetrated the room. Gum smiled remembering how Beat had said he used to start wearing them since a lot of the kids at vocational school got weirded out by his gaze at them. When he began to wear them people began to relax around him and he became the life of any party.

Of course that was before the Stone Tears... before he forgot about having fun. Gum sighed and leaned against him. Beat just stood there woodenly. He listened to Z-ro talk about his move and his mother. He smiled at what sounded like a careful edit and then gave a lazy smile at Gum who began to lay against him. Gum smiled back and said, "You should do that more often."

Its time for JET SET RADIOOOOO!

This is Professor K, your insight to the main light on Jet Set Radio! Appears there was a ruckus down in Shibuya-cho, apparently there is someone knew, blazing GG turf. Is it a new rival or just an initiation? I think it was a little of both, cause the tag man calls himself Z dash Ro, that's right boy and girls, Z-ro has been strutting his stuff on his first day of moving into his new town. And the first day here, he has become the newest and youngest member of the GG's.

Now that Z-ro has made the squad, does this change the levels of power? Present tension between the GG's and the Stone Tears is tightening up that even a couple of the smaller gangs feel the Stone Tear Pinch. I don't know, but this boy has some skills that left squad cars, guard dogs and even the not so liked Onishima tagged. Not bad of a resume if you ask me.

Now that that is out of the way here comes so punk rock from the ever classic, Linkin Park.....

Z-ro looked up at the radio. "Who's that?"

Gum came up and said, "That's Professor K, and it's his pirate station that we listen to. He also keeps all rudies up to date info about all the actions of all the gangs."

Z-ro looked at her strangely then said, "How did he know I was just hooked as a member? I didn't even know who you guys were until fifteen minutes ago. And I just joined like five minutes ago."

Garam came from the shadows and said, "We know, sometimes I think he gots the whole city bugged."

THIS IS PROFESSOR K GIVING A SHOUT OUT TO GARAM OF THE GG'S, SILLY GARAM, BUGS ARE FOR KIDS. HAHAHA-HAHA

Z-ro looked at the radio and said, "What the Hel-"

"Hello?" a guy knocked on the garage door, everyone scattered to a window to see who found their shack. All were surprised when it was a brown suited UPS guy. Beat and Z-ro walked to the door. Z-ro only followed simply cause he didn't know better, otherwise Beat would have yelled at him.

Beat opened the smaller door next to the carport door. "Who is it?"

The UPS guy said, "Got a package for a- geez- A Mr. Z dash Ro? from a Professor K." Beat could hear the guy say *These names are made up*.

Beat looked down at Z-ro and said, "It's for you, sign it already."

Z-ro signed the dotted line and was handed a box.

When the guy left everyone came down from the rafters except Yo-Yo who just hung upside down.

Beat helped the little kid open the box, and read the letter to him as Z-ro rummaged through the box full of Styrofoam popcorn padding.

"It says. "These are your new blades. Stomp down on the heels or tips to pump out the juice, courtesy of the Jet Set Radio Crew. Rock on to our tunes as you pull off those mad skills of yours." signed Professor K" Beat picked up the radio that was in the box, it was slightly different from everyone else's only because there was no antenna and three knobs of controls instead of two. "Guess someone from there actually saw you, I never heard of them doing this before."

"Thanks" said Z-ro stammered, "But I don' think I should take them, Compared to my brother and his crew, I am nothing."

"No way! your brother has a group that is better than you?" That was Yo-Yo hanging upside down. There was a sudden thump as he fell from one of the rafter he hung from.

Beat looked at the strange kid, and then knelt in front of him, "How old was your brother when he started out?"

Z-ro only looked at the floor but said, "four,"

Beat nodded, most ruddies started out early, Beat started when he was five himself. Beat silently prayed that his assumption was correct. "And how old were you when you started out?"

The boy looked up at Beat like it was the first time he had met him, "ten." Gum gagged on a Dorito. Everyone else was dead silent.

Beat smiled and said, "Do you think your brother had your kind of skill level after only three years of blading?"

Z-ro looked up at Beat and beamed, "No."

Beat smiled and said, "Now that is settled, I think there should be stuff you should be aware of when you go out as a GG..."


	2. Home

Chapter 2 home

Z-ro left the garage with the feeling of something he never experienced before. He looked at the falling sun. It was almost Eight - thirty. Halfway to his mothers' house, he heard something from behind him. Z-ro turned and didn't see anyone but something told him it was Beat. "Beat?" Nothing answered. After a few moments he began to resume his walk to the house he had not even settled into yet. 

"You just can't shake the feeling, can you?" Gum was flat down on her back. She laid spread across the flat side of the roof looking side ways to the kid walking off.

Beat looked at her for a gauging moment before he said, " Sorry, but I can't relax when he is going in that direction." He looked at the path the boy was traveling, the same direction as Stone Tear territory.

Gum followed Beat to the apartment building Z-ro entered. When he looked inside a window and finally saw the mother he relaxed.

"Satisfied?" Gum let him sit down on the roof across from the apartments.

"Sorry," he said again, "I should trust K. He knows about my... problem with the Stone Tears. I think that, that little letter was as much for me as it was for Z-ro. But... just the way it happened. It was just not like professor at all."

"It's o.k. Beat, lets just get home." She pulled him off the roof and they rolled to the garage.

"Hey mom! I'm home!" Z-ro dropped his new gear on the matted floor that was his bed and bounced into his seat at the table just beyond the door of what would have been his quarters. His foots steps were padded and quiet, a strange contrast to the children his own age playing outside.

"That's good, Gered. Did you make any new friends?" His mother wore a simple pair of blue pants, dark locks of hair shadowed over green eyes. His mother looked to the room he ran out of and knew his answer.

Gered began to chow down on the food in front of him and said, "Yeah, I was goofing off, and taggin until I bumped into the leader of the GG's." 

  
"The GG's?" She looked up already understanding the situation. And why he came in the door looking so pleased with himself.

"They are a Rudie gang down here." He explained. He knew his mothers' apprehension after all of the things they have already gone through but he knew she learned this was who he is, who she used to be.

His mother was used to such antics of daily police visits to her home in New D.C. She simply said, "That's nice." She paused for a moment. "J-just be careful and don't do anything that is seriously illegal. I understand the thrill of being a skater like you do but just don't get caught." Gered looked at his mother. He was amazed she could not bring herself to say what he really was now. Gereds' mother was an ex-Ghost of D.C. And one of the most skilled taggers he had ever met. It was the only reason he was so good in D.C. But the taggers in Tokyo-to are so much better. It amazed him.

Gered, swallowed hard his last bite and said, "Ma..." he paused not sure how his mother was going to take it, "I'm not a skater anymore." His mother stopped and looked at him, "I am a rudie. I am a member of the GG's of Shibuya-cho. They were so impressed with my and my age that-. They gave me new blades..." he said lamely.

His mother pulled her brows together in concern and then sighed, "You know how I feel about those high powered blades... Especially after what had happened to your cousin Blain."

Gered looked down at his plate of rice balls and fried veggies then said. "Mom, Blo knew what he was doing, he just scared some of the peds. And that was in D.C..." Z-ro blushed trying to defend himself to someone who was on his side. "Besides the skates are legal here." Gered spoke carefully not wanting to argue with her right before he left. 

"The police are very dangerous here." she said, in her own kind of justification to her worries that still haunted her from D.C.

Gered smiled and said, "I know, I was shot at when I tagged the captain."

Gered's mother smiled with a weak laugh and said, "I know you, so I am not worried that you will do anything bad, just make sure you come home to see me like your brother did. O.k.?"

When dinner was done Gered kissed his mother and stuffed his things into a bag. Even if he didn't meet up with the GG's, he was going out to start his own life at school. Move into another family's house, and then work the rest of his life away. His mother knew that he would most likely join a rudie gang as soon as they accepted him, so she did not worry about him as long as he checked in from time to time. 

Gered's mother took her plate to the sink and began to wash it absently. She began to zone out remembering times in New D.C. that were pretty scary for the both of them. Shook dried her plate and shook herself and thought Gered is his brother_. He can do anything he sets his mind too. His brother led the gang war that spread over half the state. _She thought to herself. _The war ended many of the death-games that bladers had often done to judge leaders and territory. Trouble didn't start until after other gangs discovered our family. He'll be fine._ Gereds' mother sniffed. _At least we were here in my hometown, not many things can go bad here._

Gered waved good-bye to his mother after he left the building. He was eager to go back to the people who so readily accepted him and who he was, regardless of his age. He was fully equipped in his new blades and radio at his side. For the first time in Gereds' life, he felt at home.

When Z-ro arrived at his new home "The Garage" everyone was dancing and said "hey" as he walked through the back door. The place was geared from wall to wall with graffiti, speakers, or maps of the cities. Beat led him to a room that was once occupied by Potts. "Hey, sorry about the smell, we tried to clean it out since we rearranged things last month but the damn smell wouldn't come out. Your welcome to anything in the fridge."

Z-ro said, "Wow this is great. Um... what do I do about a job?"

Beat laughed lightly finally placing trust in Professor K and said, "There are always jobs around here, I think the restaurant down the street is looking for a dish washer." Z-ro nodded and looked at the belt on the bed.

Beat spoke up, "We share the expense of everything here, food, bills and cans. We got you a can-belt when you left. If you're hungry the fridge is full. And what else... oh yeah tomorrow Tab and Combo are going to show you around Shibuya."

Beat was about to leave when he turned around and said, "There was one thing that was bothering me. You said you weren't used to bullets but flame throwers?"

Z-ro smiled and went to his bag and pulled out his flimsy looking wrist guard. When he pulled it on he twisted his wrist a large fan like row of plates expanded around his wrist into a two-foot diameter shield that had heavy scorch marks. "The gangs of New D.C. agreed with the police not to use lethal weapons like blades and guns, one of the few things left over were our spray cans."

Beat wondered out loud, "Spray cans don't seem like a very good flame thrower."

Z-ro smiled and waved him outside on top of the roof. Everyone heard the shaking sounds of a can. All of the GG's looked at Z-ro with what looked like a shield attached to his wrist. Beat was carrying Z-ro's bag outside. Beat nodded for everyone to follow. 

It was already dark outside. With no moon, the stars were the only light outside. When everyone was on the roof, Z-ro pulled out several hubs that were scorched and slid on his new blades. Z-ro looked to Combo, "You look strong enough, chuck these, Frisbee style, as far as you can." Combo looked to Beat as Z-ro began to shake a can written in English. Beat nodded his head. Combo chucked all four of them in rapid succession out towards the raised highway. As soon as the last one was in the air, Z-ro's skate burst to life, large waves of dark electricity licked the rooftop as Z-ro took off after them. 

Behind him, Beat could hear Yo-Yo say "Holy Shit! Dude!"

Z-ro grinded on a high telephone wire, not feet forward like a normal grind but feet behind his body, only take small steps to propel him farther. Beat looked at the new skates, the sparks they gave off were black not the traditional blue. Beat tapped Gums hand lightly and nodded to the Z-ro's feet jets. They were being used. 

Z-ro then took out a narrow tube and a sudden line of flame knocked the first two flying disks out in one shot. Z-ro did a back flip with a 360 twist and landed on a far wire on the opposite side of the street shooting another blaze then a final third that took out the last of them when he stopped and came back the other noticed he had them all in his hands. Beat smiled and said, "That _is _a lot of skill, nice job catching those."

Tab said, "Beat you could keep up with him? It was like watching a blur for me." most of the others agreed with him. Only Gum and Garam did not nod. They were able to follow along too but their eyes were big at with surprise at how the kid moved. No one wanted to ask how the kid could to a forward grind like that.

"Can I see that can?" Z-ro handed Beat the can and said, "In New D.C. there is a different mixture so it is more..." Z-ro's Japanese was good for a westerner but paused searching for a word. "Explosive? I use this needle nose," he handed Beat a metal pipe with a narrow flame attached to a trigger. "To help me aim and builds pressure for long distance shots."

Beat looked at this little kind with a frank smile and said, "Man, things over there must be hectic."

Z-ro shook his head and said, "They are not that bad, but my brother is the Leader of the Free-flyers. I was trying to keep up after-, well it was a long story." He gave a slight smile. Beat looked at it for a second. It was forced. 

Cube poked her head through the group of people in front of her and said, "Your brother is _the _Black Angel?"

Z-ro made a slight frown then said, "Yeah, but I want you guys not to tell anyone, that was the reason why I had to come down over here, cause me and my mom were constantly attacked. I also think that was why I am so good, I had to be." Everyone nodded all gained a new respect for their youngest member.

The next day, found Cube and Mew in front of a restaurant. Z-ro came back out with a huge grin on his face. "I can start work next week, but he said I needed a hair cut. I guess it _is _kinda raggedy."

Mew and Cube giggled. Mew said, "Aww, but those cute little spikes make you look soo adorable." Her voice turning high as if talking to a baby while stretching Z-ro's face into unnatural angles. 

Z-ro finally had enough. Pushing her hands away he said playfully, "Lay off. But I _do_ need a hair cut."

"Never fear, Combo is here." Combo had his boom box over his shoulder and gave Cube a light kiss before trudging up to the kid and said, "Common half-pint time to get you shaved."

When they all got back to the garage, he was slightly irked, he didn't mind the term "half-pint", he was small for his age but Z-ro was not sure he like to term 'shaved'. Z-ro only went along with it, for all his big talk, he was very intimidated by Combo. Combo picked him up, pulled off Z-ro's shirt, and plopped him with an inelegant thump on to a raised chair with an overhead light near the bathroom. Combo pushed out the girls while he said, "I am about to do some magic, ladies, I don't think you need to hear the squeals of fear as I give him a hair cut." Combo ushered the girls out of the door still talking all the while.

Mew spoke up and said, "Just don't give him a rash from the electric clippers or do something that we might all regret."

"Hey that last time I was drunk remember? And that Love Shocker loved it anyway, damn crack-head."

"Hey Jewelle is my friend you big ox." Z-ro heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh.

"Sorry Mew, you know how I get." Combo sounded almost harried.

"So do I and don't you forget it!" Z-ro heard the other voice say and both Cube and Mew laughed.

Z-ro spoke over his shoulder, still sitting obediently in the chair, and said, "You know I can still hear you guys, and thanks for the vote of confidence. I really need it." He gave another of his slight whimper as Combo came back into the room.

Combo looked at the kid and smiled as he said, "Man, you really are scared of me. Don't worry I _am _a fairly good barber. Just wait." With a few fatal sweeps of a razor and a slight trim on the sides and bangs, Combo said, "There done, see?" Combo handed the kid a mirror. Z-ro unclenched his hands from the chair that were tightening after every swipe that flew by his ear.

Z-ro looked at him self through the mirror and said, "Wow" The spikes on top of his head gracefully fell over to the sides of his head. "Never thought I could look this good." Z-ro gave himself a cheesy grin through the mirror.

Combo said, "Go hop in the shower, you have hair all over the place, man I didn't think you hair was that thick. When you're out, I'm supposed to get Tab and show you around so hurry up."

With a nod Z-ro hoped into the bathroom and showed up ten minutes latter with a nice trim hair cut. Combo looked at him from a different angle to admire his handy work and said, "O shit."

Z-ro gave a slight start, Tab came to view what Combo was talking about and began cracking up. With a sign of real fear Z-ro said, "What did you do?"

Combo and Tab looked at each other and said, "no-nothing it just looks like the way you combed your hair, it looks like a pair of ass cheeks on the back of your head." Tab laughed harder. With that Combo ruffled the back of his head and said, "That's better." 

Tab was still laughing.

Z-ro grumbled to himself about finding a bandana and said, "Can we get going now?" 

Z-o was actually having fun, it was much more wide and not so full of people so he could enjoy what he did, grind and paint. Half the day was worn away as he became in tune with his blades. Black electricity grasped pavement, roof tiles and rails. Tab and Combo stood eating lunch while Z-ro was getting used to his skates. 

"Beat says that the kid is a genius." Tab felt the gust of wind as Z-ro passed him at speeds he knew only Garam and Beat could match.

"A genius huh?" Combo saw what the kid was doing. "I am still not quite sure he is human the way he does some of those things. You didn't see it cause you were in mc-e-d's but he learned how to actually use the thrusters while grinding. The kid has no fear of killing himself."

Tab ate his burger thoughtfully and Z-ro finally did a three-sixty with a twist and landed on a rail and slowly grinded to a stop in front of them, perfectly balanced. "A genius." said, Combo.

"A what?!?" Z-ro lost his balance and fell flat on the cement. He got up groggily and looked at both of them. "Who were you guys talking about?"

"You, of course. I don't think I have seen anyone your age doing half the things you are doing." 

Z-ro looked a little disturbed. "O.k. just don't call me that." he sat down and began to eat his burger oblivious to their raised eyebrows.

Suddenly Combo and Tab pulled up and Z-ro had to slam on the brakes and back track to where they were. "What's going on?"

Combo looked down and said, "This is as far as we go. That over there is Stone Tear territory."

"What's so bad about them?" Z-ro was surprised that the big guy was so apprehensive about a rival gang. He looked like he could take on army.

"They tend to beat up any rudie that is not one of theirs. They see it as someone is trying to invade, and they take out that person very quickly."

Z-ro looked concern as he looked to the west. "Me and my mom moved in over there just a few blocks down."

"Then your lucky you went south your first day instead of north, you probably wouldn't be here today, you'd probably be in a hospital. You remember Garam right?" Z-ro nodded, "Well you can't tell by the outfit, but he was the first one to go into their turf, and he got the snot beaten out of him, they let him live since it was the first time a GG went into their turf. But he is covered in bruised from head to toe. The costume just hides it. He was lucky; The Love Shockers never got a chance like we did. Many of the rudie gangs are pooling money together to pay for a hospital bill for what they did to their leader, Lina."

Tab felt the answer was inadequate and said, "The Stone Tears are a national gang. They have divisions in several other cities, but their roots are in Kyoto. Don't ask Beat about his history with them, he'll probably try to fight you. Yo-Yo asked one time and had a black eye for a week. After the punch Beat apologized of course but gave no explanation to why he did it."

Z-ro looked at the invisible border that was a simple narrow street. "Would you guys mind if I drop by my moms house?"

Combo and Tab nodded a go ahead.

When they got there, Tab thought is wasn't a half bad place to live. The apartment was a little shabby, but it had walls that were windows, and a small row of pots that constituted a garden that lined the windowsills.

"Hey mom." Z-ro skated up to his mom and gave her a hug. She moved a stray brown lock of hair and said, "You are o.k. I take it. Its nice to see you so soon." She looked up the two other people that followed her son home. "And these are?"

"Oh, sorry. This is Combo and Tab." Tab and Combo nodded with a nervous smile. They were never too comfortable with meeting another GG's parents. It usually ended with a violent threat and a few minor injuries.

Z-ro's mother walked up to the two of them and said, "Its nice to see that Gereds' friends are brave enough to come visit me." The statement carried none of the sting both Combo and Tab thought it should. They both gave a cautious smile.

She looked at both of them carefully then gave each a hug. Then said, "Alright I like these boys. Gered, enjoy your self just make sure you get some kind of education and a job."

Z-ro gave his mother a hug and said, "Here mom take this," Z-ro handed her the radio that JSR had given him. "It picks up a Pirate station called Jet Set Radio on a 109 frequency that most normal radios don't pick up. You can keep up with what is going on with me through this, O.K.?"

"Z-ro we should get going, Beat probably has the stuff ready." Tab looked outside, it was getting dark already. And they were really close to the boarder.

Z-ro's mom looked at him when his friends were already out the door. "You kept the name?"

Z-ro nodded, "After all the stuff we went thru at home, Z-ro just fit. And not because of what those bastards said about me either. I was never a zero or my brothers shadow, I am my own person." 

His mother nodded her approval. "Mom listen it is really dangerous just a few blocks north, could you be careful please? The new gang have only been attacking rudies but still..." His mother nodded and said good-bye as he left. When he left, his mother turned on the radio her son had given her and began to listen to a very strange man shouting Radio.

When they finally left Combo and Tab were quiet. Tab finally said, "That was.... weird.... That's the word. 'Weird'."

Z-ro smiled and said, "She understands better than most parents. She was a 'blader' in New D.C. years ago."

Tab and Combo both gave an understanding "Oooooooh."

"You guys don't mind I gave her my radio do you? I can buy another one when I get paid."

Tab waved him down and said, "Its o.k. Those radios are cheap and easy to make. Good thing too because of the abuse they take."

It wasn't just Beats imagination. All of the G.G.'s seemed to have suddenly gotten a little faster. He looked over to Garam following a new line of grinding and asked Mew, " Since when has anyone known of that line?" Beat pointed to the route Garam was on, that connected the half pipe sewer to the up rail at the bus station to the wall next to a large billboard over a canopy guarding part of the parking lot. 

Mew smiled when she got up, rubbing her sore back, she said, "Z-ro was creating lines left a right, Gum, Piranha, Garam and Yo-Yo have been trying to follow them. It took them a while to realize that Z-ro was using his nettrium while grinding to build up speed to get up that high." Beat tapped the tip of his blade igniting the jets in his own blades.

"I think I'll give it a try. You game?" 

Mew gave a weak smile. "Not today, I have been strangely of balance, back hurts..." Beat waved his hand. "Please I don't need to know what new positions you two have been doing." 

Mew turned crimson, "Get out of here you perverted bastard." Her face was pouting and he laughed and tried to follow an imaginary line only Z-ro could have seen.

Beat made the line on his first try but instead of finishing the line he grinded of the billboard and did a full circle grind of the bus station. _It's been too long for me not to enjoy this._ He thought to himself. On his third circle he heard the faintest siren. _Damn just when I was getting relaxed._ Beat did a three sixty spin and flip and landed in front of his GG's. "Time to go guys." He couldn't mask the irritation in his voice.

They all nodded and scattered. Beat suddenly looked at the roof of a shadowing building. Beat sighed and burned his nettrium strait towards the building, and grinded up the water drain on the corner to the top of the roof.

"Nice trick." said the rudie on top. A single Marble teardrop hanged of her left ear.

"Its no trick its a valuable skill, I am amazed none of us have every figured it out."

The other rudie sighed. "Some one did, only my group accidentally killed him over it."

Beat suddenly took of his goggles, "Don't you dare for a second try to convince me it was an accident. Rhythm died the way he did Silphie. And I don't plan on forgiving you guys for what you did to Lina _or_ Garam anytime soon either." Beat glared at her for a few moments.

Silphie murmured her understanding then went on. " I am just waiting for you to disgrace Chisel, once you do that I can interfere. Not before." She folded her arms and looked out to the city. "This is a nice town, I would like to be the owner of it." Beat scowled. "But i don't want what Chisel will bring to it. He knows i am the best in our group in this town. But you have to make a challenge in order for me to beat him. He will not have me in a challenge unless you challenge us.

Beat clenched his fist. _Just when i was begging to relax...._ Beat gave himself a stupid smile, mocking himself. "Alright then, I challenge a race between the best of the Stone Tears and the best of the GG's."

Silphie nodded fully satisfied. Beat turned to leave then realized what he just said, 'the best of the GG's' he turned around to tell Silphie that Z-ro was not going to be in it. She was already gone. In the echoing of the roofs, Beat heard her say, "I am fully expecting Z-ro to be in this race Beat."

Beat kicked and cursed himself then realized that he better tell the GG's what he just did, and he hoped that Z-ro would be up for this challenge.

They were already back from the front when Beat came in. He called Z-ro and pulled out a map to show Z-ro the boundaries. _I guess it's a good place to start to get him warmed up to the idea, _he thought ruefully to himself. "Z-ro, see from Main to Sakuya Street, that is the boundary with the Stone Tears' when we go within three blocks we double up, none of use go alone. I will take you there myself later tonight with Gum. They are very aggressive and have constantly challenged us."

"That was one thing I was wondering about you guys. How do you handle your fights here?"

Beat looked thoughtful and had to think how to explain it to someone who has never seen a challenge in Tokyo-to. Deep inside his chest his heart was pounding hoping that Professor K didn't announce the challenge before he got a chance to tell Z-ro! "Well there are two ways, the first is to make a clear challenge, they can do that by either tracking one of us down, or spray over a large public tag. If they do the second one, we can't back out of it, we have to accept, if the challenge was a verbal one that was said, we have the power to decline. We also have street fights. Many of gangs before had live guns and switch blades. But all gangs have decided that the cops lay off us if we don't use guns. They damaged everything else besides killing us rudies." Z-ro nodded in understanding. "But some gangs still use switch blades. Others like the Stone Tear's use stone rods. Of all of the Original gangs before I started, only Poison Jam are really around, and that's cause we took out their leader when they first challenged and have never really recovered until like a month ago. We wiped all of the other gangs out. That or they are too small now to take turf neither of The Stone Tears or we want. The Stone Tears are our major rival and we have had a stale mate with challenges and fights for almost two months. They control Kogane-cho and half of Benton-cho. Neither of us have gained or lost any ground. I don't think I want you in a street fight unless you feel comfortable using that flame of yours and only to help as herd them somewhere. I don't want to kill them, just kick their asses. I know your fast enough to get away if you run out of spray. Other than that..." He looked at the kid again and sighed, " I have issued a challenge that will be in two days. If you think you are ready for a debut, I would like you to be apart of it."

Z-ro nodded and said, "Yeah I will do this one."

Beat smiled and everyone cheered.

Gum was up ahead scouting to see if there were any Stone Tears' present. Beat and Z-ro waited in a shallow alley. Gum came back and said, "Coast clear."

When she made her move to go back out, she was stopped by Beats' hand holding hers. Her face turned red but noticed his gaze was on Z-ro not her.

"Z-ro, I need to know something. Where did you learn how to do a Forward Dash?" Beat's gaze was steady but his voice cracked.

Z-ro looked into Beats eyes and slowly turned away. "I don't know," Beat saw something flash through Z-ro's eyes. Beat recognized the look in many of the other GG's. Bad memories.

Gum looked at the two and felt their tension pushing her back. Of all of the rudies in the GG's she was the only one who had something to go back to if she so chose.

"I guess, that when I was being..." He thought a moment finding the right words. "Hunted" he said finally, " in New D.C., I thought up a bunch of things I could do to survive out there. When I said," it wasn't bad out there," I lied. It was horrible. When Combo threw those hubs, I didn't think he could throw them that far. It was the first time I did it. I never had nettrium skates before." Z-ro looked at Beat, his fists were clenched. "Why?"

Beat looked at the kid like he was a miracle. The kids' natural talent amazed him. Not even a full day passed and he had perfected several techniques Beat only saw in his older brother. "My brother made a dash similar to that one seven years ago. He was killed in a fight with the Stone Tears over in Kyoto. They wanted him to teach them that dash. When he said, 'No,' they killed him with their Stone rods." Beat swallowed the lump he felt swelling in his throat. Gum had no idea and quickly covered here mouth with her free hand and squeezed his hand that she was holding onto. Beat then let go.

Z-ro looked at him sympathetically. He understood. God, he understood.

"Z-ro I don't want you to ever do that dash again. Not even if one of our life's on the line, not until there are no more Stone Tears in Tokyo-to o.k?"

Z-ro only nodded. They were both quiet. Gum moved her hand over Beats' hanging one.

That night it took a while for Z-ro to get familiar with the GG - Stone Tear boarder.


	3. Race against the past

Chapter 3 race against the past

Beat came running into the garage in a dead run, both Cube and Slate followed. Beat feared Yo-yo would start teaching Z-ro some of his non-too-popular practical jokes. When Beat found out who was the one screaming all he could think of was, _God damn it, Yo-yo couldn't you have chosen someone with a sense of humor?_ Piranha's glare had murderous intensions. She had finally, after a few minutes, tracked down Yo-yo and Z-ro laughing on the roof and both were cowering but still snickering in a corner outside Gum's room.

"Piranha if you're going to kill them, can you at least tell me what they did?" Beat relaxed after her face-flushed scarlet, a hard thing to accomplish given the dark tone of her skin. Yo-yo and Z-ro couldn't stop laughing and when they heard what Beat asked they laughed harder. Cube and Slate were tempted to laugh along but sagely decided that they shouldn't.

"These idiots got into my personal stuff." She looked back at the boys. Her glare hardened and she almost snarled when she continued. "My _really_ personal stuff."

Beat just said, "and?" His voice had a ring of a father to it.

Piranha mistook the tone in his voice as boredom and assumed wrongly that he knew and just wanted her to say it out loud. She gritted her teeth and vowed to get back at them all. "Piranha I really have no clue what was going on. Are you going to tell me, or curse me under your breath?" Beat smiled smugly and picked up both boys, one in each hand.

"Well-" She took a deep breath and said, "They went into my draws where I keep all my expensive stuff. You know the stuff that I buy from over seas?" 

Beat nodded and Cube covered her mouth correctly assuming what had happened. Slate tapped Cube's shoulder to ask, "What drawer is she talking about?" Cube just elbowed his ribs and waved her hand to shut him up. 

"And?" Beat asked quietly.

Piranha shook with rage, "They took my cherry candied underwear!" Yo-yo and Z-ro laughed harder both no longer able to suppress tears.

Beat still didn't get it. "Why is this so funny?" He looked behind the boys. It was Potts.

Z-ro said in between deep breath's "Potts- he - ate - them."

Piranha screamed and charged at the two kids. Beat promptly dropped them both and caught Piranha as she was just in arms reach of the two kids that lost her 7800 yen worth of her boy-friends birth day gift. "Piranha they'll pay you back. I'll make sure of it." It was his turn to glare and both Z-ro and Yo-yo stopped their chuckling where they stood. 

Z-ro gave a cough and said, "Sorry Piranha we were just going to pretend that Potts would eat them, we didn't think he would wonder into my room and actually seek them out for his dinner." Yo-yo snickered and Z-ro laughed again. Slate shook his head and said, "This is _way_ too much info for me. God I don't think I'll be able to eat candy for a while." after Slate left, Beat picked up both Yo-yo and Z-ro, both feeling very young at the moment.

Cube calmed down Piranha and Beat was left alone with the youngest GG's not much younger than him really; Yo-yo was only fifteen, barely. "Z-ro," Z-ro gave a slight 'ehe' to his name. "Don't you have a job to go to?" Beat dropped him and Z-ro ran out the door, thankful for not getting anything worse than that. 

Beat turned when Z-ro was gone and dropped Yo-yo, "And you..." Beat looked down at him making himself feel _really_ old. "Just don't get caught next time." Beat promptly rapped Yo-yo's head and told him to hide from Piranha for a while. Yo-yo smiled and left.

It was finally Tuesday, the day of the challenge. For some strange reason it turned into a big sporting event as all of the gangs came out to witness what would most likely determine the outcome of this gang war. All the GG's, Stone Tears, Love Shockers and all of the other minor gangs that numbered two or three members throughout the smaller sections of Tokyo-to came to view what would most likely decide the fate of all of Tokyo-to. Professor K was even there in person, in an unmarked helicopter floating over the suburbs of Benton-cho. Somehow he had gained access to the restricted air space. All rudies free and gang-related alike listened and the alleys of Benton-cho echoed Professor K's broadcast.

Beat looked at the course ahead of him. It extended all across Benten-cho. Roofs, Sewers, and the Train Tracks made up the race path. "It still is a bit weird." Z-ro was more than a little nervous at all of the people who were watching him. Word spread fast that he was going to be in the challenge and many people curious about him lined the streets. Beat and Slate told him to relax. When that didn't work, Slate showed him a ridiculous dance to get the jitters out of him. Beat thought to himself, _am I insane? This kid barely knows the turf yet, but somehow I know he can do it. It will end in another stalemate if I was with any of the other GG's._ Beat looked at Z-ro and gave him a self-assuring smile. _Yeah if anyone can beat these guys at a strait out race, it would be him._

Beat and Z-ro waited for the other two that they were to race against. There was a sudden burst of music. Both looked to a high wire. "Looks like they are trying to make an entrance." Beat looked to the two Stone Tears coming their way. "Z-ro, that big guy is Chisel. Careful, he is a real bastard. He is the one that beat down Garam." Z-ro studied the goatee and the rest of the gang attire Chisel wore. "He is the nastiest guy of the group. I think the Stone Tears would not be half as bad as they are if he wasn't the leader." Beat quieted when the two Stone Tears landed next to them. All Stone Tears had a rock shaped like a tear on their left ear. Chisels' seemed to dangle loosely.

Chisel zoomed in on Z-ro and marched right up to him glaring down at the boy Chisel thought as little more than prey.

"This is it? This is the rudie you're going to entrust tha fate of Benten-cho too?" The big guy towered over Z-ro. Z-ro wished he could curl himself up into a ball. The big guy began to laugh hard. "Your gonna trust a race to a kid whose balls haven't dropped yet?" Chisel grabbed the kids' head and squeezed, crushing Z-ro's hat. With one arm Chisel lifted him up until they were eye level with each other. It only emphasized the difference between them. 

Z-ro glared at the goateed man and said with sudden courage. "Watch it, or you'll be sportin singed peach fuzz low life." Z-ro forced his foot as hard as he could into the elbow joint and Chisel promptly let go. He grinned, showing no signs that the blow hurt him. Beat smiled at the comment. Then glared at the leader of the Stone Tears. A warning that he would have given if the Stone Tear leader had threatened any of his GG's. 

The big guy smiled and said, "Humph maybe they have."

"Chisel, Z-ro and I are going to race, and you?" Beat gave an apprehensive glance towards Z-ro. For all of his bravado, Z-ro was still quite scared of the big guy. _I got to stop thinking him older than he is; Z-ro is still just a kid._

Chisel smiled as he said, "Me of course and Jeanne," Chisel slapped Jeanne on the back, Silphie gave Chisel an almost evil glare. She completely ignored her Chisel and glanced at Beat before locking eyes with Z-ro, it was a race solely of her and him. "She is much faster than the rest of us. I was having her wait until we got a public race like this so you can have the public humiliation you deserve."

Beat smile correctly understanding the resentment. "Your just mad that we tagged your friend ten times in the last challenge." 

Chisel raised his arm to punch. Beat moved back catching Chisel's punch in mid-air. Then there was a sudden sharp spark that made Chisel yelp. Chisel looked to the ground where Z-ro sat. Z-ro was checking the wheels of his skates and said, "Oops, sorry these jets have a mind of their own." He smiled his most innocent smile and slid the blades back on. It was the only thing from turning this race into a free for all.

Every time I think that that kid is too young, he does something right, it proves that he is a true GG. Beat nodded to his gang. All glared across to the Stone Tears who showed up as soon as Z-ro kicked Chisels arm. "GG's scatter." All of the GGs' scattered to the length of the race as well as the Stone Tears. Neither gang trusted the other. "Chisel, this is going to be a fair contest. You hurt any of my GG's and I will make sure I hunt down every one of your God damned clan." If any of the GG's had heard the threat, they would want to die under his breath. Beat's eyes narrowed through his goggles. Jeanne heard the threat and flinched, she knew that Beat somehow could if he wanted to. She turned as she heard laughter, scowling at the idiot that Chisel was. "Yeah, sure, whatever Beat." He emphasized the casualness of the threat with a sudden shove. Beat gritted his teeth and grabbed Chisels arm. Veins' in Beat's arm suddenly bulged from forcing Chisels arm to stop. He still glared at the leader. "This is to be a fair race." was all he said. He let go of Chisels' arm. Chisel rotated his wrist as if having Beat holding it hurt him. Beat looked at the bruises that were showing on his tanned skin and smiled. _It had._ He thought in satisfaction.

Z-ro fixed his wrist guards and nodded to Beat. They lined up, waiting for Jeanne and Chisel. Chisel handed one of his men his stone rod and rolled to the front line. Jeanne moved up her bust. They were on the verge of bouncing out if she pulled off a good grind. Z-ro averted his eyes. When Beat saw Z-ro's bright red face, he knelt down to him and said, "Don't worry about being embarrassed. She wears those clothes to distract guys like us. All right? Just ignore her and concentrate on our race." Z-ro nodded.

Z-ro's face contorted at something, "Guys like us?" Beat looked at the girl with a stupid grin on his face and Z-ro chided him trying to hold his own snickering.

Professor K was on the airwaves judging the race himself. Beat never heard of this done, echoing what Professor K did for Z-ro. Beat shook it off, it was probably because the Stone Tears were a national gang.

At Professor K's word the Race was to start. 

ALL RIGHT YOU CATS AND KITTENS! IT IS TIME FOR THE RACE OF THE DECADE BETWEEN THE GG'S AND THE STONE TEARS!

The echo of the broadcast was deafening. All rudies where listening in. Z-ro didn't need to have his radio then. He could hear the broadcast clearly by just standing in that spot from the sheer number of people there.

ALL RIGHT STONE TEARS, GG'S, READY SET GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

With that the race lifted off. Z-ro could barley hear his breathing over the sounds of people cheering and yelling. Z-ro took the higher route on the phone wires where he was most comfortable. Beat was beside him on the rooftops of the residential district of Benten-cho. Chisel yelled at Jeanne to get closer to Z-ro. Z-ro felt the sudden bounce of the wire he was on and saw it was the girl with the hanging cleavage. Z-ro forced his eyes away and began to concentrate on winning this race. He jumped off of the wire and prepared to slide into a water duct that was a short cut barely big enough for him.

Chisel saw Z-ro jump and new instantly what he was aiming for. Chisel sped up to where Z-ro would have landed and body checked him before he could slide into the tunnel. Z-ro gave out a yelp. 

Beat was horrified as he saw Z-ro being hit to the ground off the roof headfirst. Time slowed down and Beat decided in that moment that this challenge was over and Chisel was a dead man if Z-ro did not turn up all right. Beat rushed to Chisel, his intentions murderous. He did a quick turn to Z-ro still falling before falling out of sight and in a rare instant, Z-ro and Beat locked eyes. Z-ro pleaded in that instant for Beat go on.

With Chisel at a complete stop, Beat past him with all his strength, praying Z-ro would be all right.

Beat felt the weight of Tokyo fall on his shoulders knowing it was now him against Chisel and Jeanne.

Z-ro felt like he was flying for a second before he remembered that he was fast approaching the pavement forty feet below him head first.

He gave a sparing look to Beat behind him and didn't worry about the race. He needed to worry about surviving this fall. In half a second he came up with several things he could do. In a quarter of a second Z-ro discarded all of them except for one.

Z-ro clenched his jaw and stuck his left hand out onto the side of the concrete overhang that was beneath the houses. In the fraction of a second that he was upright instead of falling head first, he smashed down his left blade and used the propulsion to go along the wall for a full second. It was enough time for him to completely recover and land safely on the floor of the aqua duct. Z-ro didn't have to look around, he knew this was the wrong aqua duct, and he already lost precious seconds. He dashed towards one side to he duct and instead of going into a side grind he landed on his heel. With the sudden bust of speed he made it across the aqua duct wall to the other side. A few rudies were even here. They all cheered as the saw him climb up the wall by jumping form one side to the other. When he came back out, and was on top of the roofs again, he saw that the rest of the group was ahead of him by a few hundred feet. 

Z-ro's feet were burning. In the back of Z-ro's mind something was screaming at him. Saying that his blades needed to cool down before using them again. He disregarded it. With every step he used his jets as far as they could take them. Z-ro did not let a single amount of thrust be lost with any step. His feet were burning and in the back of his mind he remembered why his mother did not want him to have netrium blades. And old stories told by his older brother about how people lost their feet when they blew up. Z-ro absently wondered if anything like that could really happen.

Z-ro was closing in on the other three people. They were no longer friend or enemies, only obstacles. When he came close enough to a high wire, he jumped on it netrium grinding it until he caught up to the others.

Chisel and Jeanne were not having any advantage at all with Beat. Both were cursing themselves and each other as both had slowed down. Chisel to make sure that Z-ro went down. Jeanne to make sure that Z-ro was all right. Beat may have been slower than them, but he had an enormous lead. By the time they had caught up to him, Z-ro was passing them by while grinding on a high power line that sloped at a dangerous angle towards the goal. Chisel was beyond pissed as he saw the little kid pass by him. Beat looked beside him and saw the kid smile at him and speed ahead of him. From behind Beat heard, "I will not loose to that snotty little Kid." With that Chisel took out a war knife and chucked it. 

Beat heard a struggled noise behind him and saw the knife leave Chisel's hand. "Z-ro!" he yelled. Chisel took the opportunity of Beat going out of his way to help the boy, and sped up and passed Beat.

Z-ro saw the knife coming and jumped of the power line before the knife cut through it. Z-ro felt himself flailing out of control towards the roof. Beat sped himself up when he realized Z-ro would not make it to the roof. 

Z-ro saw Beat up ahead and reached for the unexpected hand Beat offered him. For barest of instants, Z-ro was hanging on to dear life by Beats hand before Beat used all of his strength to propel Z-ro ahead over the heads of Chisel and Jeanne.

Z-ro gritted his teeth and with the last of his endurance he dashed with all his might to the goal, spray can already in hand. Chisel and Jeanne tried to catch up, but both knew the instant when Z-ro cleared the last three roofs, that they had lost. Both heard the spraying of a can. Beat shot past them as they slowed down.

Z-ro sat on the ground out of breath trying desperately to take off his blades. They were dimming a glowing red when Beat came up to him. All of the GG's were already there hooting and hollering. Beat came up to Z-ro and said, "Cutting it close there a _couple _of times." Z-ro smiled remembering the second conversation they had only a few days ago.

"Don't I know it." He smiled and everyone lifted him up in the air. Beat smile and then turned back to the Stone Tears that were coming his way. His face fell grim as he remembered what Chisel had done several times during the race.

All of the Stone Tears were behind Chisel but it did not look like they were following him. It looked like... It was then that he noticed that all of the Stone Tears had their own cans out. The girl, Jeanne, came up to Beat, "I'd like to apologize for what happened during the race." All of the other GG's were quiet. Jeanne's voice was calm and collected. "I didn't think he would go so far as to try to kill your friend. You didn't see it but the knife he threw was originally for Z-ro."

Z-ro stood up. "I saw what you did, you pushed him enough to knock the blade out of my way. Thank you. But it cost you the race." Everyone, both GG and Stone Tears looked at the boy in shock at his bluntness and indifference to his own life.

"It did, but I don't think our leaders would have wanted us to win the city by cheating in such a manner." It wasn't until now that Z-ro noticed that it was dead quiet, he was not sure if it was because Professor K was not talking or if all of them had their radios off.

"Thank you for your apology, but you know this changes nothing between me and the Stone Tears." Beat glared at the Stone Tears, all of them.

Jeanne looked at him and recognized him in the next instant, It was not Beat speaking it was Rhythm. Fear suddenly flashed through her eyes then it was gone. Jeanne noted the look of Beats older brother in him and said, "I think there are something's that all of us" she gestured to the rest of the Stone Tears. "Regret, Beat. I am the new leader."

All of the GG's looked to Chisel. Several of the Stone Tears forced him to turn around. There were five tags on his back. One of the other Stone Tears said, "Our bosses in Kyoto would want the last five tags themselves. We have been wanting to get Chisel under for a while, but we could never find anything that we could challenge until now."

Beat nodded. He decided to disregard his feelings about what happened in the past for now. "What now? Jeanne?" he said in a smile.

Jeanne gritted her teeth and smiled saying, "You can call me Silphie for one. I hate Jeanne. And for another... You won. You gain Benten-cho. For now… But make no mistake. We will take Tokyo-to. It will just take a little more time."

Beat smiled his cruelest smile and said, "I'll be waiting."

Silphie looked at the GG's leaving. When they all finally left, she had the rest of the Stone Tears back out of the Benten-cho area. "Back to Kogane!" she yelled. When they finally got to their base, Chisel was tied up on his knees in front of Silphie. "You." she growled. Lowering her voice she continued. "Chisel, we are going to take you back to Kyoto. You have given us a lot of problems. I need to take you to Kyoto personally. Damn it." Silphie sighed and looked to the men all were glad that she was finally in charge. They all basically hated Chisel but had no choice but to follow him since he was the appointed leader.

Chisel glared at Silphie. His mouth bound so he could not speak any retorts he had. "Warcraft, Scathe," Two of her personal bodyguards came forward from the very darkness of air. Some of the Stone Tears pulled back by their sudden appearance. "Go give a message to the GG's. Tell them that we are going to hold all hostiles until I return from dealing with some garbage matters. I ask if they will respectfully do the same while I am away."

"Silphie!" They shouted in unison. They pulled back into the shadows and disappeared.

She looked at the rest of the gang and noticed that all of their faces had suddenly turned several shades of blue. She sighed wishing that her guards did not so easily scare the regular gang. She looked at Chisel his eyes wide and muffled sounds of panic. _Well maybe not._ She looked to the rest of the men. "Relax I was not sent to kill any of you, just to bring Chisel if he violated any kind of rule. I know the rest of you are good men." All of the gang visually relaxed.

"You O.k. Mew? You have been quite since the end of the race." Garam tightened his hold of her. He did not have his mask or goggles on so he could see Mew clearly. His recently grown gold-blonde hair waved lazily.

Mew cam to a stop Just outside of the entrance to the city park in Shibuya. "Its just that it was pretty scary watching Z-ro take the hits he took, that's all. I can picture my child doing that when he gets that age."

Garam froze at the word 'C' word. Child. "M-Mew what are you saying?"

Mew just realized what she said and cursed slightly, "Well umm Garam, I'm late." Garam loosened his hold on her to look at her face forward. Natural blue-teal hair began to stray from her head in a halo at a sudden breeze.

"Are you sure?" Silver Green eyes were wide with awe.

"Not quite, but I didn't really think about it until I saw Z-ro. He is such a small kid, I though of what it would be like when my kid grew up."

Garam still didn't get the answer he was looking for and said, "Did you get tested yet?" Their conversation carried on for a few minutes before they decided that she would get tested tomorrow. Garam smiled, "Either way, I think you already have a kid, Z-ro is really fond of you, you know."

Mew smiled and said, "I think so too."

It was here before they kissed that two men dressed in lean black suits showed up in front of them without them noticing. "Excuse me," one of them said. It startled Mew and Garam so badly that they both gave a shrill yeep. The first man smiled and said, "I am a representative of Silphie, leader of the Stone Tears, she told me to relay this message to a GG, 'we request a hold to all hostilities until I return from dealing with some garbage matters. I ask if you will respectfully do the same while I am away.' That is her message, I am to await for an answer." He turned his head side ways looking at Mew with cool black eyes. Mew looked at the way the guy was standing. He seemed... _feral_ she decided. 

Garam took in an indignant breath of air. Mew scooted back to brace from his yell. He was cut off before he started. The other man with limp arms, moved forward. His arms swinging like no muscle was holding them together said, "We thank you for your cooperation. We are to leave for Kyoto in the morning for Chisels' trial." 

That shut Garam up. He looked at Mew wishing those guys had not interrupted them and with an aggravated yell he said, "Alright! I'll go Mew! Just stay here Beat will want to know about this." Ten minutes passed and both men looked at Mew like she was some oddity in a store. She squirmed under their steady gaze. _Man! These guys make me feel like I am under a microscope or something. _There faces screwed strangely like they were both trying not to laugh. She got up to pace and try not to look at them. Several more uncomfortable moments passed and one of them walked up to her and looked her in the eyes. "Page." he said, and then he backed off joining his companion gazing at the sky.

When he finally came back, Garam rolled on blades to touch Mews hand. He then turned his full attention to the messengers. "Beat says he agrees. On the condition that he can ask for the same if the need arrives for it. Including during the middle of a challenge." 

Both gave a shrewd look at Garam then said, "Agreed." with that, they both stepped back. The one that spoke to Mew looked at her tensely and "page" echoed in her mind. Mew took in a slight gasp at the sudden disturbance inside her mind. Then both seemed to disappear with a slight stir of air.

Garam looked at Mew. She seemed unsettled about something. "Well now that we both seem to have lost the mood, lets go back. I think Beat should know more about those two anyway." Mew nodded, looking at the air that the two messengers had previously occupied.

"Mew you know this means you are going to lay off the grinding for almost a year."

"What we don't even know if I am pregnant or not!" she skated in front of him the previous ten minutes were strangely forgotten to her.

"Doesn't matter if we know now or not, what if you are? All that twisting and jolting would not be good for a baby would it." 

Mew let go of her anger and smiled at him. "You are going to be a wonderful father. You know that Garam?" They then kissed and skated slowly along the streets to the garage.

Warcraft and Scathe came back; both were in tears of laughter. Silphie came up to them and asked, "What happened?" 

Both cleared their thoughts but Warcraft answered, "They agreed to the terms on the condition that they may do the same anytime. This includes during a challenge." Silphie smiled pleased that such an exchange with her guards and the GG's was executed so easily. "There is one more thing you should know about Silphie." 

. "What is it Warcraft?"

"The GG known as Mew is with child. Scathe had a vision and announced her." Silphie smiled pleased that Scathe would see such a peaceful thing. She was afraid to ask, "Then what was so funny?"

Both guards looked at each other then began to laugh again. "Just something that some of them were trying to figure out. Especially the girl named Mew, she has some serious problems she has not told her mate yet." Both guards laughed harder. Silphie shook her head; she had a hard time trying to understand how anyone could read minds.

They left for Kyoto that night. Chisel was the last of insurrectionist in authority among the Stone Tears. His trial would be the last.

A full week after the race had passed. It was still talked about by most rudies. The boss that hired Z-ro even cheered as he came in the door for his first day of work. It was quiet when he came back to the garage. Z-ro took off his shades and slumped onto the couch to watch some T.V. When he finally began to doze, Mew burst in through the door. "Z-ro where have you been? Don't you have your radio on?" She leaped over the bar table separating the kitchen with the rest of the living room and rolled up to him. "Professor K has been broadcasting that you need to go to the park. As soon as we found out someone had sprayed on our turf we were all there but you."

Z-ro looked tired and groggy but asked, "You really shouldn't move like that, you're pregnant." He said matter of fact. "Oh, Who is it this time?" He slid on his shades again and got a can ready.

Mew grabbed him and shoved him out the door before he could tighten his wrist guard. "It's your mother."

"What?!?" Z-ro gained sudden burst of energy through his already sore back and legs. With speed that left Mew in the dust, he made it to the park where all of the GG's were waiting for him except for Mew. He looked at the graffiti; it was a large tag of Z-ro spraying his symbol. Z-ro looked at his mother as soon as he stopped, she was in tears. Z-ro rolled slowly up to her as all of the GG's parted for him. Beat was holding her until he showed up and his left side of his shoulder was soaked. "Mom…" He stuttered out.

Z-ro's mother saw him and clung on to him as she muttered. "Gered! Its your brother." she sobbed for a moment. "Something happened to him. I need to go back." Her voice carried more than sadness. 

Beat looked at Z-ro and her mother, and remembered what Z-ro said the night they went out. "_When I said, it wasn't bad out there, I lied. It was horrible." _Beat suddenly understood. Beyond the sadness of Z-ro's mother was despair, utter **fear **of going back. _Things must have been awful for his family_ Beat thought to himself.

"I am going too mom." Z-ro took of his shades and dropped them on the grass. His mother clung to him tighter and both got up to leave. They had lost their race against the past.

The end.

Epilogue: Kyoto

One week later in Kyoto…

Five young women sat on high pedestals above Silphie in what appeared to be a courtroom. All of the women had just been instated five years ago. This was the first time that the Stone Tears were run by an all pre-eighteen year old group. But their age was pointless to their knowledge of their organization.

"Konney, I am positive it was him." Silphie gave her report to the five women of the Stone Tears. Two were glancing at data record of the members of the GG's group.

Julse, who sat at the end of the line, looked at a map of the area lost in this little fiasco. Sighing she said, "Silphie I don't think you need to concern yourself with such trivial matters. The person who killed Rhythm is dead. We punished him after we found out what he did."

Silphie would not take this answer. "Beat does not know what happened after his brother was killed. He still thinks we are a bunch of cold blooded killers..." Silphie spat the last part out,

Konney interrupted her. "Yes, well some of us _are_." she smiled but understood the meaning of what Silphie was saying. "Beat will not give up even if his whole gang is wiped out. Is this what you are saying?"

Silphie seemed satisfied, "Yes." Konney leaned back in her chair that was in the center and nodded. 

Stoon looked at Silphie thoughtfully. "It would be in our best interest to do nothing at this point in time. Continue your little war in Tokyo-to. If you happen to loose... it doesn't matter. There have been other cities that have resisted and won. It is of no consequence. We will just retry a couple of years later." 

"I am sorry elder," Silphie used the term in highest respect to their superiority. Age was truly meaningless in the Stone Tears, many people that were above the rank of Air Razor, the Thieves guild, were much younger then she was. "I just think that if we don't deal with this matter with Beat, he may end up like his brother Rhythm. Good Rudies are becoming a rare breed now a days." Silphie looked down to the floor and said, "It feels like rudies like me are becoming things of the past."

"We understand, it has been going on for over seventy years now. About the time that Bike gangs were big. We all are in competition with what was once a noble cause. If it still is a noble cause is yet to be seen." Stoon glanced at her console then said. "Projections say that rudies will be around for some time. It is why we placed our sites on Tokyo-to. By the time rudies hit their prime we will be in full control of the city."

Silphie didn't think so but merely nodded. "Am I excused?" 

All five women nodded, Then Shenune spoke up for Silphie's benefit as well as the other elders. "What of Chisel? Do we exile him? He is very resentful and most likely will not follow the path of a rudie being tagged. Even after he accepted being classified as a rudie, he never did like following rules."

Silphie turned to Shenune. "I think it would be best if we did something with him that is definite. People like him would try and with invariable success to align other defeated rudies against us. He may be a bastard, but he is also a capable leader."

Shenune nodded. "We will discuss this further. I am pleased that the GG's are such a resilient group. It has been a couple of years since we had a war that lasted some time."


	4. The Turf

Part 2: Back home

Chapter 4 The Turf

Petals of cherry blossoms blew across the park. The GG's stood in silent shock. The park was suddenly cut away from the city that existed a few short meters away. Many of the GG's wanted to say something; anything to the person they owed their pride, their city too. The youngest member did not know how he had affected them in such short a period of time. Z-ro looked at his mother, squeezing her shoulder in reassurance. Z-ro and his mother got up to walk away. Beat bit his lip and rolled up to Z-ro's mom to place a hand on her shoulder. She turned, her eyes were wide with... _Terror_. Beat finally decided. _ She is more than just afraid, thought Beat. She is terrified._ Out loud he said, "You are not going anywhere, I will go with Z-ro." Z-ro's mother looked up at the leader of the GG's. Her tears swelled up and she gave him a weak hug. In the back of his neck Beat heard her breathe, "thank you." 

Beat helplessly patted her back and held Z-ro's mother until she was steady on both legs. When he let go he felt someone behind him. "I'll be damned if your going Beat!" Beat looked suddenly at Z-ro. Z-ro's face was in a hard scowl. "You have no clue what the hell your committing yourself to." Z-ro walked to up to Beat making sure he was making eye contact with his leader. 

Beat felt all of the things he knew Z-ro must have felt. Z-ro saw the reflection of his life in Beats eyes. Beat kneeled down to looked at Z-ro square in the eye, remembering how his own brother, Rhythm, died. How his GG's tragic circumstances brought them all to become a family. Beat then looked at the older woman who was still in tears. "Z-ro your wrong. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am getting myself into." Z-ro cut himself off as he saw his mother. She already showed relief of Beat going in her stead. Z-ro nodded in agreement.

As soon as Beat gave a sigh of relief over not going to take care of his GG, he heard from behind him, "Then I'll be damned if you are going by your self Beat!" 

Beats' eyes suddenly went wide and gave a heavy gulp. Beat stood up and tried **not** to look in that general direction the voice came from, saying, "I'm not going to argue with you Gum." With that, Beat tapped Z-ro's shoulder and said, "Lets get our tickets, you can fill me in on the details later when we are on the plane." Beat and Z-ro began to skate and made it around the corner and stopped. Z-ro looked up at Beat. Beat mouthed 'wait'.

Gum smiled at the audacity of completely ignoring her challenge. She nodded to Piranha and said, "Pack my stuff, I am going too." 

Piranha laughed and said, "Yes ma'am!" Piranha saluted and grabbed Slate. "Com'on man! We got some packing to do." Slate gave a slight "ehe" feeling a sweat drop appear on his forehead.

Gum skated around the corner going after Beat, and rolled up to walk beside Beat. He turned to look at her and smiled a smile of appreciation. Gum suddenly felt like a young school girl and gave a blushing smile back. Beat picked up her gently swaying hand and the three went to the airport about some flight tickets.

"How much!?" Beat pinched the bridge of his nose then grabbed Gum by the waist, pulled and picked her up and away from the counter and said, "Calm down. I knew it would be this expensive. Especially if we want to leave by tonight." Gum grumbled about half a million yen as a lot of money. 

Z-ro looked at the flight chick slightly agitated and asked, "Are there _any _flights that are not going to DC?" 

The Flight chick shook her head apologetically. "I am sorry, but the rest of the cities in the area are under a blockade because of gang war activity." 

__

Z-ro purchased the tickets and gave Beat and Gum theirs. "Umm guys where did you get this much money?"

Beat smiled and said, "You know that new pinball machine and stereo speakers Slate and Mew have been saving up for?" Z-ro gave a toothy frown. "Let's just say they are in for a longer wait than they expected."

Z-ro looked at him for a moment, eyes narrowed. "They don't know do they." he said flatly.

"Of course not!" Beat huffed. "They might- you know, hurt me." He then looked as sheepish as possible. Z-ro turned his face away in disgust.

Gum sighed and said, "I'll tell Mew but you guys have to break it to Slate." Both Beat and Z-ro mumbled non-committal sounds.

Z-ro thought about the cost of the stuff the tickets were replacing and said, "Wait a minute, that only covers hal-mf umf damfmf." 

Gum suddenly turned around and said "what?"

"Nothing" Beat said quickly then let his hand go that was covering z-ros mouth. Gum gave them both a funny look then went to the ladies room. When she left Beat looked at Z-ro, "You didn't want me to tell you where the rest of the money came from in front of her…" Beat stopped in mid-sentence and looked up when someone said "yo".

Garam came through the south gate and dodged a couple of weary travelers when he finally pulled up to them and said, "Hey guys, all your stuff is packed. When do you guys leave?" 

Beat looked at the clock and said, "Three hours, just enough time to get our stuff then be back here."

Garam shook his head, "I've got my mom driving the stuff up here already. I think everyone is busy and said for me to tell you guys good bye." 

Beat looked at Garam for a moment. Of all the GG's, except for Z-ro, Garam was the only one who was on any kind of speaking terms with his parents. Beat knew that if his mother is bringing their things, it must have cost a lot from Garam. Instead of saying anything about it, Beat said, "What?! No good bye to their fearless leader?" He scowled and then let it slide to a smile. "Just don't trash the place alright. Who's coming over?"

Garam gave a wide stupid grin and said, "a couple of lover shockers and two guys I've met over near Benten-cho."

"Garam go to Bonis, and tell him Z-ro had a family emergency and will not be able to work for the next few weeks." Garam nodded and left. "Tab already knows but make sure no one doubts that I left him in charge, alright? Oh and before I forget, please for the love of God feed my dog." Beat pause after he said that then said, "I just didn't make a bad pun did I?"

Garam smiled and said, "I won't tell if Z-ro won't." Z-ro shook his head only now getting the joke after he thought about it.

Garam nodded. Garam pulled Beat to the side and asked, "What about the Stone Tears? What we do nothing for half a month until you guys come back?"

Beat said, "Yes, you do nothing. We may have been in a stale mate with them for a while, but that was simply because, you, Gum or me were there to ensure it. Besides, they are inactive right now too."

Garam nodded again, and looked to Gum. She was busy talking to Z-ro about New D.C. "Why did you let her go?"

Garam had a good point; Beat usually did things like this alone. A nasty habit he formed over the years as leader was going off to fight some ones' else's' cause, first it was Combo and Cube, then Beat defended The Love Shockers, attack when the Stone Tears came. Beat said, "A couple of reasons: One, all the girls have grown quite fond of the kid." Garam could attest to that, remembering an earlier conversation with Mew. "Two, she is the only other GG besides me that can passably speak English, and three I think it would comfort both me and Z-ro to have some one who is a little headstrong to come along." 

Garam sighed and said, "Just be careful not to piss her off, you do, and you'll be stuck with her for the rest of the trip." 

Garam waved to them as they moved to the entrance of the plane terminal. As it turned out all of the GG's arrived with ten minutes to spare before they had to board except for Mew. Z-ro took her aside sometime ago to look after his mom. When the gates finally closed and the plane was taking off, he looked at the large clock centered over the left wing check out center. _Mew will probably be with Z-ro's mom by now._ Garam began to slowly skate out of the airport and back to the garage, the rest of the GG's had gone ahead of him, he liked hanging back to think. He heard the jet liner fly overhead and looked up. _What are they getting into?_ The image of Z-ro's mother flashed through his mind. Seeing grief and fear griping at her soul. 

Just as the plane was taking off, Mew was trying to console the woman who knew the answer to Garam's question.

Mew sat down next to her and just listened to the woman. "What kind of mother am I?" She just barely stopped crying moments ago, but Mew thought in consternation that it was because she was out of tears. "Sending one son to save another in that hell..." She began to shack as she said the last word. Z-ro's mother lowered her head and whispered to herself again, "What kind of mother am I?"

Mew grabbed one of the mothers' hands firmly and said after a moment of silence, "Your the kind of mother who understands her son, you know when to love and when to let go. Isn't that why you came here? So that you can let him go?" Z-ro's mother suddenly slowed her breathing and finally stopped her minor sobs to looked at Mew.

"But I couldn't even go and say goodbye to him." Mist covered her eyes again.

"You couldn't go say good bye because you were not ready to go back. He was ready to go back the moment something happened. You should know that better then anyone." Z-ro's mother only nodded. Mew hugged her feeling a sudden clarity and understanding. Mew would probably be in a worst condition if her child would go off to god knows what. Mew hugged her tighter and began to cry at the thought.

"I think not."

"What do you mean? ' I think not.'" As soon as they landed, Z-ro changed. Beat was slightly unnerved by it.

"I told you guys that the rules here are different." _Apparently _thought Gum. She looked to Beat who only nodded. Z-ro was oblivious to what they were doing he was only concentrating on what was outside of airport doors. "Look. In here, we are in international boarders, but once we leave the airport we are in Free Flyer zone. They will at least question us, but they won't like who I am. If we get pulled over just let me talk all right? "

Beat only gave a slight nod; Gum ground her teeth a little. "Z-ro, are there rudies here or just blader's or what?" Gum was beginning to want to know what got Z-ro so riled up about. They had hoped for an explanation on the trip over there but he was simply quiet the whole time.

Z-ro looked at her for a second, the first time he had looked at either of them since landing. "There are all bladers, no one here has rudie gear, its too expensive. That's why I was thinking of just wearing shoes, but it would be good to have the extra speed. You look Japanese but I am definitely Ameran. So I think it best I lead, Beat, I don't know how you fight, but they like fighting from long distances. If we start fighting, get as close as you can." A couple of people were staring at them. All three seemed like they were preparing for war. Beat and Gum had no idea how close they were right. 

After all three had placed their back then an their additional duffle bag around there shoulder and gripped it like it was a gun. Beat looked around and suddenly realized how badly they stood out. Many people were openly staring others gave quick side-glances. Beat didn't know why but dragged Z-ro and Gum to a smaller hallway that was isolated. When they were huddled, he said, "I think it would be better if you start speaking English, a lot of people were staring at us when we were just carrying on in Japanese. _O.K?_" Beat said, trying to hide his accent. 

Z-ro started to cough and said, "_Just let me do the talking, they get wind you guys are from Tokyo-to we are as good as dead."_ Beat and Gum both had a delayed reaction as both were translating English to Japanese in their minds. 

Beat asked _"Why?"_

"_I'll tell you guys after we get to safety."_ With that they all finished putting on their blades and moved to the entrance. Z-ro put on his shades and nodded. 

"Um Z-ro?" Z-ro turned around to look at Beat. "can you see in those, I mean its almost morning here so its pretty dark." 

Z-ro said, "I am fine."

Gum leaned closer and said "How many fingers am I holding up?" Her tone absolutely serious as she laid three fingers right in front of his eyes.

"I got a finger for you." said Z-ro his patience wearing thin. 

Both Gum and Beat looked at him then began to laugh. "At least your not so serious now. You were creeping us out, relax Z-ro." Z-ro cracked a smile, the first one he had shown since they boarded their flight. "Lets go already." Said Z-ro with a snap. But he still kept his smile.

Some of the people saw them and backed off. Gum gave a slight frown. Beat looked to Z-ro he shook his head not to ask.

They approached the exit to the airport and a guard stopped them and said "Is there anything I can do for you perhaps escort you to your hotel?"

Z-ro shook his head and said in his most youngest voice possible, "We are fine thank you, I am just taking my friends to visit my family it isn't far from here." Z-ro's voice changed so much that gum almost forgot to close her own gaping mouth. 

The guard looked at both beat and Gum with a gauging glance. He nodded and let them pass through his gate station.

Just as they were leaving Z-ro turned and said, "K guys we need to move fast, this is Free Flyer territory."

Beat remembered something and said, "Wait, Z-ro why? Didn't you say earlier that your brother is the leader of the Free Flyers?"

Z-ro gave a long looked and then suddenly turned away. "Exactly."

Gum looked at him confused, "So what's safe territory?"

Z-ro turned back looking towards the guard the passed and sighed saying, "Ghost town."

They left the airport and bladed as fast as they could out of what Z-ro called Free Flyer territory. Four minutes passed, just shy three blocks when they were stopped. Beat and Gum looked around seeing bladers crowd the streets around them. Fires burned in cans lighting the streets better than the old street lamps could. "Z-ro there must be a hundred of them!" Gum had her mouth open slightly in pure awe of the number of members.

"There are over three thousand members, we are lucky. We only walked in on a party." Beat gave an incredulous glance to Z-ro before the head of the group moved up to them.

In harsh syllables of another language the group leader said, "Well... guests, I guess we should give them our hospitality." Beat was just able to understand the English like dialect. 

Z-ro looked behind him to Beat, "_We can grind faster than they can skate. Trust me you don't want their hospitality!_" he said in quick Japanese.

Beat smiled tightly, "_Gum think you can do what Z-ro did that one time_." Gum gave a slight nod. Z-ro turned back to the group leader and smiled. The leaders eyes narrowed. Gum, Beat and Z-ro turned to a blur grinding up a building corner enough to reach power lines some twenty feet above the party.

The Free flyers only heard a couple of slurred syllables before their prey moved. By the time the bladers realized it, they were gone.

"We were lucky that a construction site was near by. A lot of them didn't even see us." Gum stood on a higher girder to get a good layout of the area.

"Hey you're speaking decent English!" Z-ro looked at Gum in true surprise.

"Yeah, I was born in England ya know."

"We were lucky. That guy making the "offer" was Ian, he probably didn't even recognize me." Z-ro looked up and said, "That's a good thing." 

Gum jumped form her spot and asked, "So what is really going on?"

"My brother was the leader of the Free Flyers. That was until what ever happened to him. That leaves me as the next possible leader. Whoever did what to my bro, Jules, will be looking for me." 

Beat nodded glad he did not get lost with anything Z-ro had just said, "So why can't we speak Japanese?"

"That is also because of my brother. I don't look much like my mother but my bro does. A lot of minor gangs have been known to commit hate crimes against anyone who even looks like they are an easterner. That's why that guard in front of the airport was reluctant to let us out, especially at night." All three heard shouts and moved fast grinding onto power lines. "We got seven mile before we get into friendlier territory." Gum gave a moan. Beat sympathized with her. His feet were killing him too.

Three bladers began to catch up to them and began to throw glass bombs at them. Though all of them missed there was a couple of close calls with Beat. Z-ro guided his friends through a tight weaving paths over fences in back alleys of the dense residential area they had entered a few blocks ago. The three were still following them even though they stopped throwing bombs. Beat looked over his should and shouted "No way!" Gum did a quick back glance and saw that two of the three were blading on the side of the buildings and were catching up.

The third blader cruised after them on the ground and took out a can and pointed at them. "Z-ro! Gum! Screw it! Lets Jet!" With that, all three of them rocketed up to speeds that the chasers were not able to match. Z-ro felt the heat of the flame thrower shave his butt and moved faster.

"Well that's that," Said Z-ro in irritation. "They will spread word that someone in town has rudie gear."

"We had no choice. We just were fast enough to escape. How did those guys skate against a wall?" Beat looked at Z-ro expecting an answer. 

Z-ro laughed and said, "How should I know? I can't do it. I told you I was a novice compared to some of the other guys." 

"You could have at least told us about that. They moved faster skating on a wall then they did running on the ground or grinding!" Beat felt a sudden vein pop out of his forehead.

"And say what exactly?" Z-ro asked raising his voice to the same level as Beats. "Oh hey Beat, I know that you know that some of the best bladers are here, but just in case that you forgot, we are both out classed here without using our netrium skates."

Just then Gum laughed. It was odd having this conversation after escaping certain painful experiences. When she said as much, Beat and Z-ro flushed feeling really stupid.

Two bladers skated across a building's roof and spotted them. "Ian was right, not many bladers can grind at that level of skill. Lets see who they are." The speakers' companion nodded. They moved in to intercept the three grinding along the length of the street/pedestrian rail. The two bladers came charging in after running against the side of a wall. The leader was able to knock off Beat. His companion was successfully able to clothes line both Z-ro and Gum. All three hit the ground hard. Beat got up from the attack quickly and saw that both Z-ro and Gum were getting on their feet too. Beat yelled, "What do you want?"

The two bladers laughed. "You are trespassing on our turf and demand what we are doing? That is rich." The two bladers did not look like much. While both were easily a head taller than Beat, they didn't seem as intimidating as the Stone Tears. The bladers wore dark jeans and loose shirts. The leader wore a bandana covering his shaved head. His companion had holes in his pants where his knees are and wore thin-framed glasses. Something that was odd in Beat's opinion.

Z-ro averted his eyes and stayed quiet. Beat got the message. "We are not trying to cause trouble. We are just trying to get to the other side of town." 

The leader gave them the same gauging look that the guard gave them. "K- where did you learn blading from?"

Beat pushed Gum and Z-ro ahead of him to start going, "We travel a lot, had to get good to travel easier." The guy nodded and let them past.

.

Gum swallowed the hard lump in her throat. Z-ro rubbed his eyebrow. "At least we got away."

Gum nodded. Beat looked at Z-ro for a second, "that last guy didn't seem so bad, is he from the same gang as the asses we met earlier?"

"Yeah, you just spoke to one of my brothers friends, I hope they didn't notice me. I don't want to say to the world that I am here just yet."

Beat said an 'oh' then looked at the city. It was mostly over populated and dirty. Smog covered the horizon of what was fast approaching daybreak

"So what do we do now?"

When the three left, the leader said, "Laz you know who we were just speaking to didn't you?" Joseph looked at his friend and smiled.

"A rudie judging from his blades. What did I miss?"

Joseph smiled and said, "That was Gered. From what I can tell those guys were good friends of his if he is traveling with them."

Laz stood there for a while then whistled out, "What do we do?"

"Nothing, I trust Gered as much as I Jules. Don't tell anyone about who we just met got it? If Gered is in hiding still, then he has his reasons for it." Laz nodded and both turned around heading back to their headquarters.

Mew reached the garage about the same time Cube and piranha got back from their beer run. When they came in, Garam was already plugging in the music celebrating that Gum and Beat would not be arguing at him to turn the music down. "Hey when did you get back?" Garam turned away from his console mixer and hugged Mew.

Mew saddened a moment. When Garam gave a reassuring smile she told him of his conversation with his mother. "It is just so sad. I guess I can see why my parents were so upset when I left." Garam nodded. All of the other GG's were quickly starting an old super famicom basket ball game. Mew sighed and nodded that she was going to go read.

Garam looked at her for a second. Not quite sure what to say. Instead of saying anything he grabbed her hand and led her to the living room on the far side of the garage. Some of the other hooted and hollered them on. When they got there though, Garam sat her down and asked, "What's bothering you Mew?"

Mew began to cry. When she slowed then stopped Garam was sitting beside her making quite reassurances that he was there to help. Mew leaned against him and said, "Will our child be a rudie?"

It wasn't long after they left the construction site behind that Beat stopped in mid step. Z-ro turned to ask him what was up, but Beat shouted, "Whose there?" in his best English.

There was a sudden buzzing sound and the three jumped back. A glass ball exploded leaving a wall of flames blocking their path. Two bladers jumped from the surrounding buildings and nodded to the three of them. "I am Nack. This is Neebol. What are you doing in... Gered?" Nacks' voice choked on itself.

Z-ro moved ahead of Beat and Gum and said, "Yeah its me...." He took off his shades; slight bags were under his eyes. The three of them had been grinding the whole night to get out of Free Flier territory and were all tired. Beat and Gum did not like the sound the blader, Nack, said Z-ros' name.

"If they are with you then I supposed it is alright." Nack gave a gauging glance at them then nodded. "Jonel said to bring you to him if in the unlikely event someone found you." When he said it twelve other bladers surrounded the rooftops and blocked all ways of escape. Z-ro didn't say anything to Beat or Gum.


	5. make a choice

Chapter 5 to make a choice

Authors Note: Exposition is the bane of every writer.

Its jet set radio!

That's right, the home to the rudies of the streets, I am your fast talkin wise man of the streets. Professor k. looks like after the Stone Tears lost Benten-cho, those boys and girls ran cryin home to mama. Ha Ha look at them run! No sooner than they go look who comes back to the game but none other than the Noise Tanks! Who put a quarter in their last count down to game over anyway? With a week into the sudden and unknown cease-fire, things have been nice in quite in Shibuya and Kogane-cho! What happened to Beat and the new leader of the Stone Tears, Silphie? All I know is that my spidey sense is tingling and it tingles never wrong!

"Yo GG!"

Tab and Slate stopped. They had both just finished their day of making the rounds around the Stone Tear Border. A Noise Tank pulled up to them and asked, "Is it alright if I try to talk to the Leader of the GG's?" Tab looked to Slate who simply shrugged his shoulders. Tab hated being the leader. It was too much pressure when he would rather be picking up girls. His last one, a non-rudie, finally dumped him after a week and he was eager to look for another one. Tab sighed and said, "I am current leader of the GG's what do you need?"

The Noise Tank asked? "Current? So it is True Beat left somewhere?" The Noise Tank seemed shocked by this. _Maybe it was because there is still such high stakes with the streets with The Stone Tears right next door_. Thought Slate.

Tab nodded in reply, "What can I do for you Noise Tank?"

The Noise Tank nodded, making a slight shift in his mask. "I am Leader of the Noise Tanks, Bit. I would like to talk to you about the Stone Tears."

Tab nodded and turned to Slate. "Go ahead of me, I'll meet up at the garage." Slate decided not to argue and went ahead of Tab. With it just being Tab and Bit, Tab decided it was easier to simply state what the noise Tank was thinking. "You want to team up then?"

The Noise Tank took off his masked then smiled saying, "Yeah. I know we turned down your help before we were wiped out, but loosing and not just our territory but our very name as Noise Tanks, has a humbling effect on a person." 

Tab smiled a genuine smile of appreciation. He had heard from Beat that Bit was a horrible jackass. It really looked like he turned into a good guy after everything he has been through. "What do you have in mind Bit?"

Bit led Tab to the ended of Benten-cho to the tower that was still being built. It was a good look out for the whole city. He had remembered that Mew had said as much. Bit and Tab stood on the peak of the tower looking over the border that separated Kogane from the rest of the city. "From the north of the railroad tracks to about here is heavily checked by the Stone Tears, But from then to the Sub way terminal is practically left alone. I think that if your gang and ours were able to push our territory from there we would be able to wedge a line and cut off the northern half of Kogane, say most of the residential area." Tab nodded. 

Noise Tanks only numbered three, but that three could make a difference if they got into a tagging war with the Stone Tears. Tab noted the whole area and thought to himself, _this could work, but the GG's are two no three GG's short now, and what about the truce?_ "Bit do you know why Silphie is gone?" The GG's were surprised how all the sudden that Professor K kept quiet about big news like why there was a truce. One was That Silphie took Chisel the former leader of the Stone Tears to Kyoto and also that Beat and Gum took off with Z-ro within almost the same few days of each other, as a result Bit was probably the only true gang leader actually in town. Tab didn't want to count out Poison Jam just biding their time.

"No, only that she's gone and now is a perfect time to strike!" Bit was expecting Tab to be just as excited but Tab looked worried. It deflated Bit's enthusiasm only slightly. 

"Beat is on a trip about…" Tab paused. It wasn't his business to tell others what was going on if it wasn't public. "a family emergency. We can't make a move without his go ahead. Plus we made a temporary cease-fire with the Stone Tears. I can't go against that. Not until Beat comes back." Tab did his best to make it sound final. 

Bits eyes widen in surprise then said, "You can't even help us with this? Com'on they leave a weakness like this only once in a while, we noticed this before we lost but we never had the manpower to pull it off. If we don't do this now it will already be too late. Can't you at least help out in some way?" Tab stayed silent his hands tied in bureaucracy of it all. _Bureaucracy, that's something I would never thought I would think of this as. _

Bits' excitement faded completely and sneered out, "Oh I get it, you had to make a deal since your trusty leader wasn't here to protect your little asses. I see how it works. Fine, Then shove it GG!" Bit pulled his mask on then left. _ Heh, looks like he didn't change after all._ Tab sighed then laughed. _He left and this is his territory._

Z-ro, Beat and Gum were taken deeper into the city. When they approached an airport. The Police had surrounded and barricaded the airport closed. The group stopped and Nack turned to them saying. "From here we will need to ride in a car." 

Beat and Gum were surprised. Neither of them had been in a vehicle in a long time, not since they were children. A black car pulled up a few moments later and Nack sat in the front passenger seat and the three GG's sat in the back. Beat was glad Z-ro wasn't much bigger or they would have had a hard time sitting since they still had their bags in hand. The car winded around streets and up large hills, after a particular climb through what looked like the center of the city they got out of the car. 

In front of them was a large skyscraper with the name WoSo Corp written in huge letters across the face of the building. "WoSo Corp is World Source Corp, the leader in Ameran aid to both those abroad and inside its boarders." Z-ro looked away from the sign jaw locked and nudged his head for Beat and Gum to follow. 

Gum was in awe at how tall it was. It rivaled anything they had seen in Tokyo-to. When they entered the elevator, it took them immediately down. Gum placed her hand on her stomach. "Don't worry Gum, it doesn't last long, this is an express elevator, we are dropping at like 10 floors a second." No sooner than he had said that the elevator slowed and came to a halt.

Z-ro waved his hand to their escort saying "I know where we are going, Jonel's office right?" Nack nodded then left them. The three GG's moved alone through large corridors until they found an office framed with large double doors that extended the length of the office. Both doors were open leaving the office more like a dent in the wall. The three walked the length of the deep office to a desk. On the wall behind the desk was a huge monitor that extended the length of the wall. It displayed the city as if it was a window than a screen.

"Gered." The person who sat in the head chair stood. He was a young boy as old as Z-ro himself.

"Adam. What happened?" Adam went around the desk to shake Gereds' hand.

"It's a mess. Once your brother disappeared several of his rivals moved in to try to claim the Free flyers Territory." _Oie, _thought Beat _he talks like Z-ro when he is serious_. "I'll tell you this, I am glad your bro Jules started making some of those defense patrols so routine. Those insurrections lasted only an hour before they were put down. Most of the harsh stuff is over. But we still don't know where Jules is. Here. This might help with clues. You were always better with that stuff than me." Z-ro looked at the contents of the folder that was given to him. It had notes, interviews with several bladers and police reports. "One more thing Gered, who are these guys? I know you would not travel with someone if you didn't trust them but I don't know them."

Z-ro's eye were suddenly alarmed then he said quickly, "Adam, this is Beat and Gum. They decided to come along to aid me from Japan. I am apart of their gang." Z-ro said with pride. 

Adam was dubious over the fact that Gered turned down the chance to be leader of a gang here, but stayed silent about that touchy subject. "Hello Adam, I am Beat, Leaders of the GG's. Can you tell me what was going on inside the Free Flyers' gang when Z-ro's brother disappeared."

Adam gave a whistle. "GG's eh? You sure know how to pick em' don't you 'Z-ro'." Z-ro blushed beat red, and then scolded himself for not having asked Beat and Gum to call him Gered while they were here. "Sorry Beat, I only meant that I have read of what your gang has done from over here. I don't suppose you know why Z-ro has named himself that?" Beat shook his head. " If I know that Gered wouldn't kill me… anyway, Jules was last seen in his own territory, going south towards Virginia. No one knows why. There are no gangs down that way and well… there is nothing down that way." 

Gum sat down on the floor and yawned. Z-ro tore away from his knew folder and looked at Gum. "Sorry Z-ro, but I am tired, we've had a long flight, and a longer run and all you guys have been doing is just talking." 

Beat turned from Adam to Gum looking embarrassed, "Sorry Gum, I kinda forgot you were there." Gum didn't have the strength to snap back. "Adam is there a place where we can rest, we can pick this up in the morning."

"Afternoon," corrected Adam, "It's 5 am now. And yeah, Z-ro you know the way. I'll see if I can dig up any more info for you." 

"Thanks," Z-ro led Beat and Gum to another room that was more of a living room than an office, both Gum and Beat sat down on a sofa in front of a fire. Within minutes both of them were fast asleep. Z-ro made a cup of coffee and began reading through the files on recliner beside the sofa.

When they finally woke up it was already mid-afternoon. Beat looked over to Gum who was calmly snuggled into the crook of his neck. Beat smiled and nudged her with his chin to wake up. She groggily protested saying something that sounded like "_I'm too comfy_" to his chest then yawned. After a minute she finally got off him only to lay against the armrest and continued to doze. Beat began to move the stiffness he found in his arm from a position his arm was not used to. The rudie leader picked up his goggles off the ground, thinking it funny that he didn't even remember that he had taken them off.

Beat began to look around and noticed things he did not see in the early morning when they had arrived. The main room all three of them had slept in was decorated in what looked like a museum. Paintings and sculptures lined the walls. Beat stopped in front of one that looked like Professor k. in a dramatic pose with microphone in his hand.

Z-ro stood next to him with two cups of coffee. Beat wordlessly took one. "That's Keith -man, He led a underground pirate station in New York for a while. When he had to leave the country a lot of gang violence broke out." Beat only grunted not quite awake yet. "You two were so happy looking together that I didn't have the heart to wake you up." Beat did a small side-glance at Z-ro then took a sip of coffee. A moment passed before Beat made bitter face. "Don't like black coffee?" Asked Z-ro with a smile. He turned away from the painting and showed him the condiments. Sugar, cream, milk, cinnamon and a couple of other things Beat didn't even recognize were among the tray's sleek trim.

"So what's' the deal with Adam? How did he get to run something this large?" Beat began to sample things he didn't even know went into coffee.

Z-ro smiled. His slightly droopy eyes perked up a little saying; "Think of him as an Ameran Rokkakaku Jr." Beat nodded. He remembered how Kogi replaced his father when Beat and Tab saw Gogi go down with his turntable skyscraper. 

"I got some info a couple of hours ago. It places my bro near the harbor south of the city. We'll need to take a car to get there, I don't think we can get there from here."

"Huh?" Beat said while rummaging with the condiments to fix up his coffee. 

"Oh you don't know. D.C. is made up of four cities. We're are in the northern most section." Beat nodded while pouring copious amounts of cream into his coffee. Z-ro sighed, "You know if you want, I can try to get you some tea?" Beat nodded concentrating only on adding more sugar. 

Gum finally got out of the sofa now fully waking herself up. "So when do we leave Z-ro?"

"As soon as you guys are ready." Beat and Gum both looked up at him then. "I had to argue to get my way so it will just be us and a driver." Gum nodded, checking her netrium blades.

"I got our backpacks loaded, we will need to be there a couple of days." Beat and Gum wordlessly nodded. "You know its weird for you guys to just wordlessly follow me." Z-ro couldn't knock the edge off his voice.

Beat smiled as he slid his goggles on, "Heh, here _we're _the newbies remember. GG's all ways follow the veterans. Right Gum?" 

Gum placed a reassuring hand on Z-ro's shoulder. "Z-ro, just remember that. We won't take the lead for anything that you don't signal use to. Alright?" 

Z-ro nodded after Gum let go. "Just don't expect me to be a good leader Beat." 

__

"You **are, **is what we are saying." replied Beat in his best English. With that they got what they had on to their backs and eat some food quickly before they left.

Though they only expected to be gone for a few days, Adam did not hear from the three GG's for another three weeks.

Weeks passed with no word from Beat, Gum or Z-ro. Silphie had returned to Tokyo-to a few days earlier, and slowly the GG's were getting back to their old edgy selves.

"I wonder why the Noise Tanks still try?" Garam, Cube and Piranha just got back to the garage talking over the Noise Tanks.

"Bit didn't say anything to Tab about it. Apparently The Stone Tears are still holding the cease-fire with us. But Silphie still didn't say why." Cube sat on the couch they moved in front of the TV last week. 

"Mew thinks its because of that agreement that Beat said, 'only if we could do the same' or something like that." Garam went into the fridge and moved around Mews' juice bottles. "That girl is drinking more juice than I drink everything combined."

"Heh, is mew still over at Z-ro's mom's house, what's her name, Lylith?" 

Garam looked over to Piranha and said, "Yeah I think she is still nervous about being pregnant still is talking to the only mother she knows." 

"Guys." Yo-Yo burst through the door. His face is completely red. "We got a problem!"

"I am not going to, Silphie!" Tab had gotten over his uneasiness of being temp leader and was actually impressed with himself. Talking back to a leader of a Stone Tear group was not something many people have done.

"Tab, I just want you to talk to them. The last stunt those idiots pulled nearly killed a few of my men, theirs and some innocent people near by."

"Oh, _Now_ your concerned for innocent people." Tab looked away from Silphie in disgust. 

Silphies' black and purple locks flew in every direction as she almost yelled, "I don't care what the hell you think of my group but you talk them down and settle things or I will stop them for good!" With that Silphie rolled back wards on her skates then netrium dashed on to a near by telephone wire.

Tab cringed as she left. "That was scary. Nice of you to high tail it out of here when she showed up."

"Hey I am a lover not a fighter." Slate pulled up to Tab.

"No you are a liar and a damn good fighter."

"Man you two know how to push each others buttons." Slate looked down the path Silphie took.

"That reminds me. How did she know about my lack of picking up any kind of women."

"Maybe it's the suit." Slate pointed to Tabs coveralls. 

"Hey shut up, I like these."

"What do we do now?" Slate and Tab began to head for the Garage.

Tab sighed, and then said, "What Silphie said was not a threat. It was a promise. I guess we need to stop the Noise Tanks before they get themselves killed."

"Think they'll be as reasonable as when Beat tried the helped them the first time?" Tab smiled, remembering when Bit started flying his fist at Beat when Beat tried to offer his help.

"Naw, Bit doesn't like me remember?"


	6. Bad Memories

Authors' note # 1 describing a fight with Beat in it really sucks.

Authors' note #2 viruses suck when you don't back up.

Chapter 6 Bad memories

Tab's talk with Bit went as well as his talk with Silphie. Yo-Yo grouped all of the GG's at the border of Benten and Shibuya not sure what Tab was expecting them to do. The high landing they stood on looked over the entrance of the subway and train tracks. With all but Mew and Tab there, the GG's were all feeling a little edgey. No one was sure if they were feeling bitter for their upcoming fight with the Noise Tanks or the feeling that they were being pushed and pulled by the Stone Tears.

"This is nuts. Why are we trying to stop the Noise Tanks?" complained Garam. Slate and Combo grunted in agreement.

Cube folded her arms and sighed, "Garam you just don't get it do you?" Garam shrugged his bare shoulders. "Well you guys weren't there when it happened, but Bit's little plan collapsed a half completed building. If it hadn't been for the Stone Tears, several people would have died." Garam gave an oh, but Cube continued. "Now think. If that would have happened what would have the police have done? Onishima is already looking for any excuse to wipe out all rudies. People being killed over a turf war? That would be it! Police would be all over the place hunting us down for what one gang did." By the end of Cube's little speech Slate, Combo and Garam were feeling guilty for not looking at the obvious.

"You shouldn't go to hard on them Cube." The GG's had been waiting for Tab for over half an hour. "Sorry it took so long. I don't know how Beat does this without ever getting stress over it." Tab squatted and pulled out a spray can. "Stone Tears are expecting us to handle this since we are the ones who won the territory back. It is kinda nice to be thought of as owning two thirds of the whole city- but its a pain when idiots are trying to prove them selves with stupid stunts." Tab started to spray out a plan.

"In half an hour the Noise Tanks will come out of that Subway entrance and grind to the railway tracks. They are planning on moving into the residential area of Kogane-cho. I am pretty sure that they are planning to discredit the Stone Tears and get the Police to drive them out for them, but he doesn't understand that what Onishima will do if he is given the opportunity. We are not entering Kogane. We are going to stop them here." Tab sprayed an ex over the train tracks. "From this entrance the Noise Tanks will have to go through the pit." everyone moaned. The pit was the train car loading area that dipped forty feet into the ground.

"Tab you know that we never can hold that ground. Every time we do try to move there, the Noise Tanks have always won." complained Piranha.

"True, but we are not trying to take over the area, we are stopping the Noise Tanks." Every was silent then. They were really going to stop The Noise Tanks. Not since before the Stone Tears came have any gangs fought each other.

The Noise Tanks had been making the last of their preparations for over an hour. The new plan involved some very clever ingenuity that would not have been possible if not for Jine's and Brenlis' help in getting it done. Bit looked over at his two friends. Both were quietly getting their gear on. Brenlis with his dark black hair was by far the youngest of the Noise Tanks. But he was the one that showed Bit what it meant to be a member of a gang, of a family. Jine was the strongest and fastest of the Noise Tanks, but he would not have been apart of this gang if he did not show Bit that leadership was a burden that needed a strong spirit of someone who needed to lead. Bit owed these two men everything. And it was this one notion that pushed his hand to this now. Bit sat quietly looking at his feet. He was ready the moment that their new weapons were completed. The other two Noise Tanks had to put together their gear, and in Jine's case take a bath. Bit was glad his mask was off. It was nice to see his friends in his own eyes instead of the constantly scanning lenses that were built into his goggles. Bit close his eyes and remembered when the Stone Tears first entered their territory, and how it was only by chance that they did not escape in time to be the first of many victims of the Stone Tears second expansion. He shivered and steeled himself that no matter what, his anger would never be like Beats'. 

Both Jine and Brenlis stood up with masks on. Bit nodded and got up grabbing his mask along with a heavy duffle bag. "Lets get this done. PAY BACK!"

The other Noise Tanks shouted. "PAY BACK!"

The three moved as fast as they could through the subways out to the surface and most likely certain pain and punishment if they fail in pulling this off.

Three months before……

The Benten-cho was in turmoil. Fleeing rudies from Kogane came pouring in in groups of ten to fifteen. All were screaming of a gang that tore apart Poison Jam in mere minutes. Bit grinded through downtown Benten trying to find Brenlis or Jine praying they would have gotten information he could not. What he could get out of it all was a gang called the Stone Tears showed up the night before and had not just beaten up Poison Jam for being in their way, but beat them senseless.

He didn't know what else to believe and not believe. Some of the frantic rudies said as soon as Poison Jam was crushed many of the Stone Tears began to smash some of the other rudies that were looking on. Bit bit his lip as he looked around and saw Onishima trying to capture all the rudies that have been fleeing from Kogane. Many of the Rudies sagely decided to give up. Better to go through a pathetic attempt at rehabilitation than go through what just happened at Kogane. Hospital trucks came in to treat some of the lucky survivors that had gotten away from Kogane.

Bit would not have been as concerned about he whole mess if it was not for the fact that Jet Set Radio was down. Not for several years has Jet Set Radio gone MIA. That is why he was so relieved when he finally saw the rest of his gang. They were both standing at the edge of a building looking at the ambulances wiz by.

Jine rolled up to Bit when he caught up to them. "Bit it's a nightmare. I just went a mile north and there were Stone Tears looking and waiting for the police to leave before moving in this direction." Brenlis behind him gave a loud gulp then said, "From what I got, one of the Poison Jam is alive but is in critical condition in a hospital. Beat saved him." Bit was looking at the ambulances beginning to leave then suddenly looked up at him. Brenlis nodded. "From what Gum told me, as soon as he heard that a gang calling them selves Stone Tears was in Kogane he took off. It scared the crap out of her when she saw him all angry."

Bit nodded. "Go see if you can get the GG's to help us Brenlis. If what Jine said is true they will be moving this way as soon as the police leave." Brenlis gave a helpless nod then bladed as fast as he could for Shibuya.

"This is our show Jine. There is no way that Brenlis will get back here in time. Lets show these Stone Tears what native bentens' are made of." 

Jine shouted "YEAH!"

Bit gave himself a rueful smile. Onishima was rounding up the last of his men. Bit wished for the first time in his life that the police would stay a little longer. But Bit was thankful for the length of time Onishima had stayed. It gave them an extra hour to get all of the rudies out of Benten and into Shibuya territory. Bit had confidence that the GG's, who tripled any other gangs numbers, and would at least make a better stand than two rudies in Benten that weren't smart enough to go with the rest of the rudies.

"Here comes one of them." Jine broke Bits concentration and looked to the east. A very large rudie with dark blonde hair carried a large strait stick. He grinded easily over power lines and agilely moved from one line to another. As if it was his nature to be able to move so easily for his size. A monster born to grind. 

Jine eyed the club the man carried, then said out loud "Don't let your self be hit by his weapon its made of solid stone." Bit shivered when he remembered seeing a rudie earlier carried off in an ambulance with stone dust all over his body. A stone club had shattered over his shoulder.

"Thanks for the reminder." Bit moved forward as the man saw that they were the only ones out this late at night. The man must have had three hundred pounds of muscle sculpting his body by the way the ground shook. He jumped from a wire grind doing an open armed seven twenty flip and landed in a deep crouch. He slowly stood up and looked at the two rudies. 

He did a gazing look at the costumes. "What elicit gangs you have here in Tokyo-to. First fish heads now robots with goggles. I have seen worse…" He trailed as he saw someone behind him land in her own deep crouch. Bit and Jine were a little alarmed. Neither of them noticed her before.

"What is it you have come here for?" Bit moved forward away from Jine. Right now he was not just another rudie, he was the leader of the Noise Tanks.

"We have come here to claim Tokyo-to. I am Drill, Leader of the Stone Tears. Your gang can surrender now if you want. Loose your gang, and you land." Bit turned to Jine but he already knew his answer before the feeling of surprise by the offer.

The woman spoke up before Bit could answer. "I strongly suggest you accept his offer. The gang called Poison Jam were offered the same and look what happened when they refused. If you don't surrender now, we need to wipe your gang of the face of the earth."

Bit only pause a second then said, "Why do you think it is only us?" The woman looked surprised then began to look around. She quietly noted that no rudies were there looking on. "Those rudies you had been beating were not all of that gang. Only the three in suits were the gang of the area. The rest were just free rudies. You robbed them of their home when they don't care whos' territory it is!" Bit said angrily. The woman looked regretful. Then that faded from her face. "It only needs to be us. No more needless victims." 

The woman tapped the mans' shoulders signal that he may proceed. Bit suddenly knew the reason why the woman was there. The man must be the leader, but the woman was the one who keeps him in check. _God help us_. He thought to himself. He moved into an awkward fighting stance. He may be a leader of a gang but a fighter he was not. Then out loud he said steadily, "Come take Benten from me then."

Jine moved into an easier stance. He moved forward so he was next to Bit and nodded through his mask. They were doing the right thing. The woman looked very sad, then left. _Great! Even she doesn't want to see this._ was Bits only thought before a lung jarring punch connected to his chest.

The Leader of the Stone Tears, Drill, out classed the two rudies in every way possible, speed agility, balance, strength, reach…. They were all on his side. Jine tried hard to block an attack but his arms bent unnaturally when Brill's forearm connected. When one of the Noise Tanks would try and draw him towards him so the other could escape. Drill would just grapple the one closest to him and throw him towards the fleeing rudie so they were always together and would never find a way to escape from the violence that they were facing.

Drill charged at Bit, his blades flickering with light. Bit spat out some blood from an earlier hit to his head and charged to towards Drill. Bit moved lower to try and get under Drill's reach. Bit moved to the lower left of his enemy and felt two finger tips graze his mask. Bit took the chance and punched as hard as he could into the other mans kidneys. It connected but only made the other man flinch. Bit looked up in time to see the free arm with the stone club hit him in the face. The stone club shattered. Bit closed his eyes just before the club hit, praying that the eye lens of his goggles would not fly into his eyes. Bit crumbled to the ground, stunned by the force of the blow. 

"Huh, your lucky you have that on. That last hit would have split your head open." Drill dropped the small stub of the club that didn't shatter. Drill loomed over Bit ready to hit him one last time while the weaker rudie was too stunned to move.

"Don't forget about me idiot!" Jine tackled the oversized man and began to punch his head while he was on the ground. Jine did not stop punching Drill in fear that it did not work. After a while the rudie felt his arms go numb from repeatedly hitting the Stone Tear so hard. When he could not keep up the pace anymore he stopped, his arms too tired to continue. Bit heard his panting, then his heart sank when it was suddenly muffled. 

Drill grabbed Jine by the throat. His eyes were wild, not really looking at Jine than through him. "You…" he said shakily, "Marked me…" Drill touched his eye brow with his free hand and could already feel the bruise forming there. "You…" Though Drill was underneath Jine he easily got up holding the Noise Tank in one hand. "marked ME!" Drill snarled and backhanded the smaller rudie into a window glass display. Jine hit a dummy hard and moaned as he tried vainly to get out of his awkward position.

Drill leaned over to pick up Jine when someone said. "Yo!" Drills' heated gaze ripped from Jine's body in time to have a green glowing blade hit his face. Drill spinned seven hundred and twenty degrees in mid air before landing on the ground. He didn't move. Bit weakly looked up from his laying position to see Beat with his goggles off. Beats' eyes did not leave the Stone Tear.

Brenlis moved from behind Beat to help his leader. "Sorry it took so long, it was hell trying to find him. He was already on his way here from a fight with Gum." Bit smiled, and with Brenlis' help wanted to get up and thank the GG. They both stopped.

Beat glare at the downed Stone Tear. "Why did you come here?" he barely whispered. Beat breathed heavily then shouted, "WHY? WHY HERE?" Beats left foot sparked to life and it flew right into the unconscious mans gut. "WHY DID YOU COME HERE?" Beat continued to kick the man. 

Brenlis began to move towards Beat to stop him, but Jine grabbed his ankle. Brenlis looked at his friend on the floor. Jine shook his head no. Beats anger lashed out until the Stone Tears' body began to lift off the ground. "FIRST KYOTO! NOW HERE? I WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ONE OF YOUR KIND TO STAY HERE?!" Beat kept kicking the downed man. Bit felt sick from the hollow sounds that came from the mans mouth as air was forced out of his lungs repeatedly. "I WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ONE OF YOUR KIND TO STAY HERE!" Bit looked at the smoke coming from Beats blades and felt sick with the smell of burning flesh each heated kick made. "NO ONE ELSE NEEDS TO GO THROUGH THAT EVER AGAIN!" Beat kicked the Stone Tear off the ground and up against a building wall. His hand clinched Drills' neck. Beat turned angrily towards the roof and shouted "Get out of here!" Several Stone Tears got up and left in fear of what he would do to them. Beat turned back to the unconscious man and raised his fist to continue his attack. It was stopped by a gentle hand. 

Beat tuned his head to see who dared touch him now. His anger evaporated in that instant. Gum let go of his raise hand and hugged him. Beat choked and let the Stone Tear slide to the ground in a heap. The leader of the GG's let himself be hugged and relaxed the restraint of his already red eyes. Brenlis helped Bit and Jine up and all three moved closer to the two GG's. 

Daylight was coming. Beat pushed Gum gently away from him but still held her hand. The Noise Tanks took off their masks. "Thank you for coming Beat. I don't know what happened with you and them, but it must have been painful." Bit reached out his hand to a more calm Beat. 

Beat shook his hand but said, "You three need to leave here. You couldn't handle this one, you will be hard pressed when more come." 

Bit looked at both of his Noise Tanks. Both shook their heads. "I am sorry, but we can't this is our home."

Beat spat. "Idiot you don't know what you are talking about, Benten is theirs. You and your Noise Tanks will in the hospital by the end of the day. You look like you should be there now."

Bit nodded, "Still doesn't mean we can't fight. Can we team up? We do what we can from here and you do your what you can for Kogane?" Bit sounded hopeful.

"Idiot you don't get what I am saying." Beat said angrily. Beat let go of Gums' hand. "You won't last the end of the day. They will hunt you down for this." Beat pointed at the Stone Tear. 

Bit said raising his voice. "What am I supposed to do? Give them Benten? Roll over and die? How can you call your self a leader and say that?" 

"You _are _dumb aren't you Bit? They own Benten already!" Bit just glared back and Beat. Beat gave a disgusted look then said, "Fine! Stay here and rot! But don't think I will come and help just because you are in trouble! You are already neck deep in trouble!" Beat nodded for Gum to follow him. When they were gone, Bit sighed and said "You didn't have to stay." 

Jine laughed, "No, but will we? Of course."

Bit heard police sirens and said. "Lets make ourselves scarce."

Present

__

Beat was right. Not even the end of the night and I was in the hospital. Placed in there by Chisel after declaring himself the new leader. Bit, Jine and Brenlis had just reached the exit to the circle and grinded the billboards to the fenced exit of the railroad tracks. _But not this time. I was the lucky one then. Jine and Brenlis… they were the ones made to suffer for my mistake. NOT AGAIN!_ Bit stopped the Noise Tanks just as they were entering the pit. A single figure stood in the middle of the tracks, waiting. 

Bit knew who it was. Tab said. "Yo! I have to ask one more time, will you not do this?" Bit felt a sort of dejavu. But Bit didn't see Tab. He saw Silphie.

Bit moved forward and said, "You really going to do go though with it aren't you?"

Tabs' faced was closed when he said, "What you are doing is a mistake. I can't let you pass."

Bit snapped his fingers and Jine and Brenlis flanked their leader. "You are going to stop me then?" Tab nodded. "Then I am sorry it had to end this way. I will not show you any mercy if you side with those Stone Tear bastards." Bit moved into an easy fighting stance. Bit had become accustomed to it from the crash course he had relieved when he ran across the Stone Tears.

"Bit, I will see to it that the Noise Tanks are remembered for never giving up!" All of the GG's stood up from the tops of the still train carts. "GG's take them down."

All of the GG's jumped of cars yelling.

Above them Silphie stood on a pedestrian catwalk watching the fight and bitterly thinking that "street-politics" is an oxymoron.


	7. enemies old and new

Authors' note: Laziness is a greater enemy than writers block.

Chapter 7 enemies old and new

This must be it. The woman, who could only be deemed old by rudie standards, stopped next to a young lady looking down to the rail road tracks below them. "Is that the GG's and Noise Tanks?" 

The Silphie looked at the intruding woman for moment. The unknown rudie sported gear and wore loose jeans with a simple black shirt under her heavy coat. "They just barely started talking," was what she finally said. "but it looks like Tab is just giving the Noise Tanks one more chance to back out." The woman nodded.

The woman turned away from the rudies below them and asked, "Who are you?" 

Silphie smiled. "Sounds like that should be my line. My name is Silphie." The woman looked at the small necklace of a stone tear around Silphies' neck.

"Stone Tear?" The woman narrowed her eyes.

"The leader. Yes. You have a grudge I take it?" Silphie looked down at the bag the Noise Tank leader was carrying.

"No grudge. I would have had one had my son met your gang first." The woman looked back down to the fight that was unfolding before them. "It doesn't seem fair seven to three…"

"I think Tab knows this is too important to risk fair play. Who is your son?" Silphie liked the small talk but curiosity was something she liked to resolve more.

"He is a new GG member."

Silphie raised an eyebrow. "Your Z-ro's mother?"

Z-ro's mother turned and looked square into Silphie's eyes. "yes."

Bit had fought the GG's a number of times. Many of them were normal rudie races but there were also street fights where they had fought three on three. Bit didn't know how to describe the fight he was in now. It was different, but that was all he knew. The GG's were not nearly as hard as they should be. Especially when it was seven to three. The Noise Tank ducted under Combos' flying arm and jumped back when he saw Yo-Yo move after Combo missed. Bit looked to find Jine and he quickly nodded, noticing the difference too. 

Tab jumped and missed kicking Bit in the gut by inches. Bit shook off any reservations when Tab began to attack him fiercely. Bit exchanged blows with Tab before Brenlis rammed Piranha into the GG leader knocking both of them to the ground. Bit nodded for Brenlis to help Jine, Cube was giving him a hard time. He was stopped by Slate. Brenlis was knocked back with only a few moments to get a passing punch in on Cube.

Combo rushed Bit and was about to close hang him. Bits eyes widened for a moment seeing only Combo alone. _Now's my chance!_ Bit swung his bag off his shoulder and dived his hand into it. He pulled out a small thin metal disk. Combo reached him just as Bit stood. "Take this!" Bit flung the disk onto Combos' chest then jumped away form the rudie. Combo only had enough time to look at it before it exploded. All of the GG"s heard a muted thud and looked to see Combo blown into a wall covered in graffiti. 

Tab and Yo-yo looked at Combo for a moment and saw the unconscious rudie covered with Noise Tank graffiti. Tab smiled at the cleverness of this particular tactic. _Rudie gangs test each others ability to reach impossible tags. With that kind of disk… _Tab looked at the rest of the staring GG's then dodged Bit who never slowed a step. _ The Noise Tanks only need a good arm to reach what would take a lot of skill for others._

"No way!" shouted Yo-yo. Cube, Slate, were hit to the ground while staring at the downed Combo. Tab pushed Garam out of the way of a disk heading for his head.

Tab kicked the disk away and it arced into an explosion of paint on a railroad car. The explosion left dents in the metal wall. Tab narrowed his eyes at Bit. _Aiming for Garams' head is low._ Tab thought to himself. "I have had enough Bit!" Tab charged Bit. Tabs' blades roared to life as blue light licked the pavement. Tab dodged two pair of arms. His single mindedness only told him to stop Bit before he kills someone with a graffiti bomb. Tab felt his fist connect to a jaw before he felt something slap against his chest. 

Tab felt the little disk begin to vibrate against his chest. Tab closed his eyes and moved his left forearm over his eyes as the right tried desperately to grasp the smooth disk. After what seemed like an eternity Tab managed to throw the disk off his chest. Tab landed face down on the worn concrete expecting a small explosion. He knew he didn't knock the disk far enough for him to be safe. What he felt, was a large inferno fly over the back of his body. _The bag!_ He though to himself, _I must have knocked the bomb into the bag!_ Tab couldn't even guess how many bombs were in the bag. The multiple explosions seemed to be endless. When the heat of burning fumes passed he saw that all three Noise Tanks were knocked on their asses with one of them passed out. 

Tab shakily stood up, a little stiff from the heat that scorched his back. Blue, yellow, purple and red paint fanned out into a tie-dyed pattern from what used to be the bag. The center of the explosion was a large hole in the concrete. Tab surveyed the rest of the GG's and saw a couple of them were covered in paint. His own back was covered with red and blue paint. 

Tab walked to Bit who was being held by Garam and Cube. Tab took off the Noise tanks' mask. "Bit is this what you wanted?" Tab said quietly. Bit looked away from Tab and saw the hole the bombs made. "Do you think this would drive the Stone Tears away?" Tabs' voice was a little louder. 

Bit still did not say a word. Bitterness consumed him. _I couldn't even get to the Stone Tear boarder…_

"What if it was just another rudie who found one of these before it went off? Or the police?" Bit still didn't say anything. His eyes glared back at Tab. "YOUR NO BETTER THAN ROKKAKAKU!" Tab angrily backhanded Bit. Bit felt his lip cut and spit the blood. He looked back up to Tab but his anger was gone. "Let him go." Both GG's let go of the Noise Tank leader. "Don't show your face unless you want be to finish what we started." Tab motioned the rest of the GG's to let them go.

Bit led his gang out of Benten-cho to the outskirts of the City. 

Silphie smiled. "That was interesting." She gave a soft applause.

Lylith turned and said, "Enjoyed the fight?" 

Silphie felt the bite in the mothers' words. "No, I like how Tab defused Bit before letting him go. He might not look like it but Tab can handle tough situations when he sets his mind to it." Silphie did one more long glance at him before looking towards Lylith.

Lylith nodded, "It got his attention didn't it? It is nice to meet the person who is my sons enemy as something other than that.

"I am not an evil person. But that doesn't excuse the others that are." Selphie looked down and said, "I should go. The fights over, and its almost morning. I am sure I am violating some rule being here. Rudie laws are too reversible for my tastes."

Lylith looked surprised, "Your not originally a rudie?"

Silphie laughed, "Ye gods no! I am or rather was a body guard." Silphie said a parting farewell and left the rudie mother alone to the new information she absorbed that evening.

Tab let out a soft sigh. _Its over… Well for now._ Tab waved for all of the GG's to come together. "Guys I understand your reluctance to fight them." Tab looked at them all. "But we can't loose the little control we have in our territory. I say ours. Because we represent Tokyo-to" Tab felt sweat slide down the back of his neck and rubbed it off. It had crawled down his back but didn't care, the burns he must have only tingled now. "Tab!" Tab turned and saw Cube look at him horrified. Tab looked down at his hand. It was covered in blood. The sudden realization of it all made him sick. Tab collapsed to his knees. Tab last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was _How does Beat do it?_

Beat was thinking that same question. _How do I do it?_ He still felt a little giddy from the last scrap he save his GG's from. Beat had saved the three of them a lot of trouble through fast talking lately. The latest being able to fool a small gang that the three GG's were just passing by while getting as much information that all of the small gang had on Z-ro's brother. That info wasn't as helpful as they had hoped. Jules was said to be taking in bladers from this area then those who were rejected from what ever he was recruiting them for simply disappeared. Atleast the successful recruits came back to say they passed before they too disappeared. But that was almost a month ago. With Z-ro's brother Gone a lot of the gangs have been fighting each other in the area.

Beat and his GG's landed south of the D.C. state boarder with all of their clues burning down to one last unlikely thread. The three had traveled south for five hours when Gum begged to stop. The group stopped at a small lake park that was the only natural looking place they had seen since landing there. Many of the places they had been to had been industrialized with buildings and crop fields. Gum took of her blades and stretched her feet. Beat and Z-ro did the same but did not bother to take their blades off. "Grinding and skating for hours really takes a toll on a person." said Gum out loud. Beat gave a slight grunt in agreement. 

Z-ro dove into his bag and pulled out some food for everybody. He looked up and said out loud in Japanese. _"Oh shit!"_ both Gum and Beat looked up instantly to see a police car, Beat and Gum have seen enough of them to know what it was, circle around the parking lot and up to them _"Guys don't say anything! English or Japanese!" _The three GG's did not say a word as they were silently handcuffed and moved into cars. Beat looked at Z-ro several times, but Z-ro shook his head mouthing out not to say anything. Gum was less agreeable to police than the two men, and almost came to blows when a police officer had to search her. Beat was just grateful that the police did not do anything so far that was underhanded. 

After a few minutes they arrived at a small village in the direction they were headed. The village had only three roads and a lot of farm equipment. The three were escorted out of the car and into the sheriffs office. It was nothing more than a converted house for the small three road village. The rooms were decorated with sparse furniture in one room, another that could be seen next to them was converted into a communications out post and the room ahead of them was the main office. They were guided to the Sheriff who gestured them to sit down.

"I am told that none of you said a word as my officers arrested you." The officer was rummaging through papers and files on his computer. He stopped and looked at them. "Do you know why you were taken to me?" Z-ro thought he had an idea but didn't want to think about some of the things that he had heard about this area years ago. Bladers would come here and not be heard from again. They were picked off by crooked police. "I have been instructed to find a child matching your description." he picked up a file full of papers and dropped it in front of Z-ro. "Disturbing the peace, Damage of property, and is suspected in connections to rival gangs in D.C. Heh, you have been busy haven't you?"

The three rudies remained silent. Beat was the only one looking at the officer, his jaw locked. "You have also been traveling a lot this past few weeks, all over south D.C. as a matter of fact."

Z-ro broke the silence. "How long have you been looking for me?" Z-ro's heart sank. He had only been fooling himself if people already knew who he was.

"Since you moved to the D.C. Virginian border." Came the curt reply. The officer busily punched information into his computer and said, "I am going to make this easy. I am just going to detain you in the cell for a few hours while I get a few papers in order." 

"What about my friends? Can they go?" Beat didn't anticipate Z-ro asking such a thing and didn't want to sound weird countering Z-ro's question..

"No, As far as I know they are accomplices." The officer smiled a cruel smile, then waved for the two policemen that arrested them escort them down stairs to the holding cell. The three GG's were placed into a electronically locked cell that hummed shut when the barred door closed behind them.

When the police officers left, Gum saw that they were the only ones down in the basement. No guard, no other prisoners. Just several cells lining one wall.

"Great now what are we going to do?" Beat sat on the bench and laid against the back wall.

"I guess we wait," Z-ro sat next to him.

Gum couldn't stay still, she paced back and forth. "Um, Guys?" Beat and Z-ro looked up. "Doesn't this look a little weird? I mean, I have only seen a couple of movies but wouldn't they, you know take us some where else? We are in the middle of nowhere."

Z-ro looked around and sighed saying, "Don't expect much Gum. There have been a lot of rumors about the police down here. None of it was good. We have to find a way out of here." Z-ro got up and looked around. But he did find it hard to believe that the officers did not confiscate anything they were carrying. _They even let us bring our bags into the cell. Too bad none of it will help us get out of here. _Thought Z-ro.

After an hour of coming up with nothing, The three GG's thought that they would make their break when the police come in and open the door to the cell. 

It never happened, after six hours of silence upstairs the GG's were wondering if the police officers forgot they were down there. It was getting towards evening. Beat finally tried to make a ruckuss to see if an officer would come down and at least indicate someone was there. That didn't work either. A few more hours passed and only the lamps gave off light. Even the lights leading up stairs were out. All three GG's were beginning to wonder what would happen if an officer didn't come back for a week, or if ever.

Beat looked up as he heard a sudden distant explosion. The lights in the room went out. "Oh great the power is out." Z-ro and Gum felt their way to Beat. Z-ro managed to dig around for a flash light. After a few shakes and a click the three GG's could see the room again. 

"Guys that was the power going out right?"

I think we established that Z-ro." Z-ro ignored the wise crack and went to the cell door. He shook it and it budged a little.

"These doors lock electronically. With the power out…" Z-ro gave a budge to the door. "they are just heavy pieces of metal. Lets get out of here." Z-ro was joined by Gum and the two opened the cell door. Beat grabbed Z-ro's back off the floor and led the way up stairs. The place was abandoned, no one was there. Darkness had set in completely, and all three GG's were ready to put this place behind them. 

A sudden spot light hit them just as the three of them left the front door of the house/police outpost. 

"Heh, you guys sure took your sweet time getting out of there." Z-ro blocked the light with his hand. That voice sounded familiar. _No Way!_ "Gered, I didn't think I would see you back here on this side of the planet so soon."

"Who is it Z-ro?" asked Beat quietly. Beat only managed to get a look at the tall man wearing a sleeveless vest and two wheeled inline skates.

Z-ro stood up strait against the blinding light and looked directly towards the man. Z-ro said loud enough for everyone. "Its Jules, my brother."


	8. Unity

Chapter 8 Unity

Beat and Gum lowered their guard but were still blinded by the spot light. Z-ro took in a steadying breath and moved forward towards the source of the light. "I am glad to see you Bro, but what happened to the police?"

Jules shook his head and said, "What? You don't think I wouldn't know when the police captured my little bro right? Anyway, I just had to get one of the officers in D.C. to come down here and pull all of the officers out of there for a bit. We couldn't break in. We are not even supposed to be here. So you had to let yourselves out." Z-ro walked up to his older brother and made a quick hand shake. "I can't believe you're here Gered." The leader waved behind him. A blader turned off the patrol car light and got out. Now that the three GG's could see they noticed there were fifteen bladers besides Z-ro's brother. "It took me days to find out where you were. Your hard to nail down as actually being here or not." Beat smiled at that. All of the bladers piled into a large freight truck and left the little sheriff office.

After an hour on the road Gered explained what had happened and why he was here. "Oie, sorry about that, I couldn't say anything. I had to disappear. Well actually I needed time to train these guys, but couldn't do it with everyone watching every move I make." several bladers shouted in agreement.

Beat took his goggles off and shook his head at Gum not to get into the conversation. Beat knew that family reunions were always awkward for rudies. Z-ro turned to his brother and asked, "So what are you training these guys for anyway? Its not like you need an elite force or anything." Jules gave a huff then leaned back against the van wall smiling. Gered left his next question unasked.

The truck came to a halt in front of a large factory. The truck was greeted by dozens of bladers at the factory gates While both bladers and rudies were piling out, Jules shouted. "Everyone to the fields, lets show em what we have been doing!" Shouts and yelling roared again as teenagers and young adults moved away from the gates of the factory and moved inside. The three GG's followed Jules into the building. The factory felt like it was hollowed out. Pipes wrapped themselves around the building like veins. 

The GG"s were led to the center of the factory. Pipes screeched and rang as bladers grinded lines on pipes and walls. Beat wanted to smile as he saw Gum's mouth drop. Several bladers were playing a balancing game where they threw a ball at each other and tried to hit it back and not get knocked off the pipes. 

The GG's along with Jules stood on a balcony. Though they were on base level the building bottom floor was still two stories below them. "I have been recruiting a new gang for a specific task. Each one here is as good as you are Gered." Z-ro looked up at his brother. "Even though I have been called the hero of the streets, it hasn't been getting better. The same problems are just being burrowed deeper. The three gangs are beginning to break down. Even my Free Flyers are falling apart." Z-ro thought of Adam. _How much control does he really have left? _Beat looked away from the amazing bladers below him. He recognized pain of being a leader but said nothing. "I needed to create a new gang from scratch…" Beat snapped out of his daze. Hairs on the back of his neck tensed. "from places other than D.C. That town is diseased with corruption. New D.C. deserves to have a chance with out the gangs from the old city over it." Beat had heard something similar to this when he was younger. It was one of the last times he was with his brother. "This is where I will make my next and last gang, Ragnarok, and like our name, we will bring the end of days to our own world and unite all bladers under a new one." Beat heard this from rudie trying to recruit his brother to the Stone Tears. "With this team of elite bladers I will be able to lay down all of the old grudges. I know it won't happen over night but it will happen. Several of my gang and some from the other two are willing to help. I am not the only one who can see where this fighting will take us. Under one name we can better settle disputes and prejudices that laid against names." Jules turned away from the bladers and looked at the three rudies with a smile on his face. Beats' lips drew tight and looked at the creation of another Stone Tear army below him.

The GG's were silent for a moment. Gum looked away from the bladers below them and yawned. "Sorry, but unlike these idiots I need to eat and sleep. Hey Jules you got anything for either of those two problems?" Jules nodded and motioned for them to follow one of his bladers to the galley. The blader they followed was a teenage girl though older than any of the GG's. She wore a single left earring that was a single cross that was long enough to hang near her shoulder. "You guys can crash over there at the end of the hall there is a couple of beds in a room. You guys can eat here in the galley or eat in your room." The lady blader left them in the galley. The GG's grabbed some food then went to the room they were given. Though the factory must have been abandoned years ago. It certainly was well kept. Even the rooms where the original staff lived were nice and clean. 

Beat and Gum ate in silence but Z-ro downed his food as fast as possible. "What's the hurry?" asked Gum.

Z-ro's mouth was full as he pounded his chest to force food down his throat faster and then said, "This is the first time I have seen my brother in three years. We may have lived in the same town but it was still in different worlds." Z-ro finished the last of his water and stood up. Beat caught the empty eyes.

Beat looked up at him for a moment. "You never wanted to be a blader did you?" asked Beat, sudden realization reflected of his face.

Z-ro took of his bag that was still attached to his back. When he looked up he took of his shades and said, "You are right. I never had any intention to be a blader, or even a rudie. I had to be though. It was the only way for my to get from point A to point B safely. My bro may have tried to protect me but he isn't God. I had to learn how to handle bladers his size and age and get a way alive." 

Z-ro left. Beat and Gum found themselves alone for the first time in weeks. When Beat finished eating he set his tray from the galley on a dresser drawer next to Z-ro's. Gum chewed on the last of her food then said, "Out with it, you have been upset about something since you talked to Jules."

Beat gripped his hands. "I can't stay here Gum." He said in a still tone.

Gum looked up from her tray then became suddenly alarmed."Why? What's so wrong with these guys?" 

"Damn it! Don't you get it? This is how the Stone Tears started out. First they 'unified' one city. When that wasn't enough they went and destroyed hundreds of gangs in a hundred cities. You know they took everything from Nagasaki to Osaka to even as far north as Sapporo. They did not do it to unite rudies of Japan they did it to gain power and control of those rudies. Do you think that no matter how justified Jules group is, they will not become as warped as the Stone Tears are?"

Gum didn't know what to say to this. Then she remembered what Beat had told her. "Beat," she got up and set her tray down on her bed. "Don't you think that Jules has the right idea though? He is trying to calm a city that we have seen is falling apart on itself. And even in the Stone Tears case, didn't you say at one point there was at least one person trying to change it?" Beat exhaled loudly remembering how Silphie declared how she did not like how some things were run. Gum went over to him and placed her arms around his waist. Beats' body stayed rigid. "Beat you told me that the Stone Tears were formed years ago to fix problems in their own city. But you forgot that they did their job, and for years it was fine. It was only after they gained bad leaders that things went down hill." Beat gradually relaxed under her embraced. "We'll just have to make sure that whatever happens here, Jules knows what happened in Kyoto so it won't happen here too." 

Beat finally placed his arms around her and sighed. Beat eyes softened when Gum looked at him. "Your right as usual. Damn you suck." Gum gave a content murmur. "So these Rags won't be like the Stone Tears. I can still hate the Stone Tears right?" 

Gum laughed, then said, "Only the ones I don't like." Beat nodded then kissed her on the forehead. Gum looked up at him happily While they were kinda sorta girlfriend boyfriend they never made any real moves towards each other. This was the closest Gum has gotten to any kind of affirmation of his feelings. Gum nuzzled her face into his neck and kissed hit jaw. Then just as suddenly has he had kissed her, she pulled away and said, "We really should go and see how the rags are training if they plan on taking on guys like we have seen." Beat felt the emptiness that was against him then dismissed the feeling with a smile. What ever their relationship is will just have to play out a little longer.

Z-ro found his brother eating alone on a high pipe with no way other than grinding to get there. Crouched and perfectly balanced. Gered gave a rueful smile and grinded to his brother. Jules smiled in amusement, Gered grinded several pipes that looked like they led to a dead end only to grind the actual wall of the building to get to another pipe. When there seemed to be no more pipes to get to the next level Gered leaped onto a lower pipe that moved up the length of the wall. Gered grinded the wall pipe then backfliped to a pipe that was closer to Jules. He was still far away. Gered slowed to a slow grind to look around and noticed a curved pipe that led to a wall but no other pipes. Then he had an idea. Gered kick grinded to build momentum up the sloping pipe to the top then slowly turned around concentrating only on balancing. A hundred foot drop was something he wanted to avoid. The rudie then went down the steep pipe, building momentum. When he came to the end of the pipe that hung in mid air, he jumped into a 720 spin an landed ankles cross in a fast grind to another wall that he grinded then jumped to a higher pipe. Gered landed on a pipe approaching his older brother and slowed his grind to stop right in front of his target. Jules silently put one more forkful of noodles in his mouth, then said, "Nice. You have gotten a lot better since I saw you last. Still don't want to be a leader? A lot of the guys would really like to see you take over." Z-ro scowled. "heh I guess not. Oh well." Jules took one more bite of food then looked at his brother for a moment, "Bro, what do I call you now?" 

Z-ro understood the what he meant. He was no longer his little brother, he was rudie. "Its Z-ro now bro." Z-ro stared back at his brother. 

"Z-ro" he marveled at the name. "Did nothing else fit you?"

"Heh, after being hunted down so many times as a zeroed blader, Z-ro seemed like the only choice. But I like it."

Jules gave a hearty laugh that echoed the off the pipes from their vantage point. "You know since you left, no one uses that name. Kids who can't blade from blader families actually don't get harassed at anymore. I guess it reminds a lot of guys that anyone can be a blader regardless of skill, birth or privilege." 

Z-ro smiled but did not respond immediately to the joke. _That's right I was a joke here. Not able to blade at all. Me the super genius. After fighting off all those bladers that wanted to get back at my bro._ "I am not a genius Jules, I am a survivor. You shouldn't forget that especially when you are a leader of a **couple **of gangs."

Jules smiled, "Yes I can." he scoffed "You're my brother, I can take liberties to distort my view of my bro as much as I want." This time Z-ro laughed.

"So how did you get up here with a tray full of food?" Z-ro looked down below him. There was a couple of hundred feet below them. Suddenly Z-ro noticed that half of the guys below them that were training were looking up at the both of them.

"Well this is a test. Heh, so far you're the only one to pass the first phase." 

Z-ro gulped. "Great all I need now is to be told that I **am **a genius. So what is this test then?"

"Its to test who will actually join Ragnarok. See, none of the guys below us are in the gang they are trying really hard to join. All of them can get about a third of the way here. Only three have gotten halfway. And you are the only one besides me to get to the top."

"Oh" said Z-ro inadequately.

Jules laughed again then said, "Don't feel too bad, the second phase is for people who want to lead groups of the new gang. They have to carry a bowl of soup on a tray and do all this with out them spilling." Jules picked up his bowl and shook it there was nothing left it in. all the soup was moped up by bread he had for his dinner. Z-ro eyed his brothers' tray. There was not a drop of soup on it. "O.K. now you are just showing off."

"That is so wrong."

"Who would have thought?"

"That was his first try?"

"DAAAAMMMMN!"

It wasn't long till all of the bladers gathered at the pipes to see Z-ro and Jules sitting at the top and occasionally laugh. 

A young blader with dark green eyes shouted "Hey! We can't be shown up by anyone! Lets go!" There were shouts and all the bladers started to try their climb to the top.

That was the scene when Beat and Gum entered the Pipe room. "What are they doing?" Gum walked ahead of Beat and looked strait up. Forty bladers were trying to grind their way to the top. A few were brave enough to try the wall grind-jump they saw Z-ro do only to fall then be caught by someone below them. Beat grimaced as he saw several people fall off pipes only to land on one below them and try to go up again.

"Hey!" he called someone that just landed from falling off a low pipe. "What's going on?"

The guy looked at them surprised. He didn't recognize them. He shook his surprise and said, "This is a test to join Ragnarok. No on has passed it yet but Jules brother just did it on his first try. I think Troy got a little miffed that he wasn't the first." He laughed easily then said, "What I think is funny is that I don't think Jules' bro knew it was a test he just wanted to talk to his bro." The blader waved at them and jumped on the nearest pipe to try his climb again. Gum and Beat looked at the pipes then decided to just wait. They both sat down against a wall and saw the spectacle of raining bladers above them. After twenty minutes a couple of the bladers were happy to break their old records in height. Others were disappointed they couldn't get to the top. Beat was surprised that none of them were angry or bitter. _Geez how did Jules choose these guys did he hand screen all of them himself?_ Beat then remembered how a selective group of bladers disappeared from around the Virginian border. _I guess he did._

"Hey you!" A green eyed blader with a thin white shirt waved to them. "Why don't you try? To worried to embarrass your selves?" he chided.

"Heh come on Gum lets show them how its done." Gum smiled and the two of them sped to the nearest pipe and began their grind up the maze of pipes.

There were hoots and hollers from the bladers below them but Gum and Beat didn't mind. _It was fun to be grinding again_. Thought Beat. It **had **been a long time since he had relaxed. Beat ran out of pipe again and grinded the wall to the bottom and waited for Gum. She looked like she ran out of line to grind up to the top and was only going in circles. When she swore in Japanese a couple of the people who understood laughed hard. Gum landed next to Beat who was smiling. "_Careful Gum they will think Japanese ladies are foul mouthed all the time_." Gum playfully punched him then looked back up at the pipes above them. "_You know this is like home but we are really missing professor K_."

Beat suddenly hit his forehead with his palm then said in English, "Do you guys have a radio?" 

The green eyed blader who challenged them earlier said, "Yeah what do you want to listen to? Like its going to make a difference in how you skate." 

Beat smiled then said "Anything you can dance to." Gum looked at him curiously. Beat said in quick Japanese. "_Can't you tell that we both have been out of rhythm when we grind? I think we need music to get that sense of balance back." _Gum nodded then looked at what the bladers brought in it was a large stereo on wheels. The speakers towered over even the tallest blader. Beat laughed as the green eyed blader kicked it to get the stereo going. A heavy baseline shook the floor and pipes. Pounding sound pulsed in a slow but urgent tempo. Beat looked up smiling. The whole place moved in time to the beat.

The green eyed blader mouthed out "Go for it!"

Gum and Beat dashed up onto the pipes moving in rhythm to the music that made the walls, pipes and the very air dance. Beat and Gum moved with grace that made the bladers gape. Gum grinded then jumped off a dead end pipe reaching on hand in the air in a slow motion dance move. If the bladers could see her up close they would see her eyes were closed. Gum grasped a pipe above her and swung around it on full rotation then let go. She launched her self into the air in a flat spin and landed on another pipe that was above her. Beat moved his hands in rhythm to music that possessed his body. He jumped and switched to a reverse grind and danced-grinded between two parallel pipes. The song ended and a faster tempo took its place. Both Beat and Gum seemed to wake up from their trance only to move faster. Both began to grind faster around and towards each other on the pipes as the ground slowly grew farther from them and the ceiling came closer. When they finally were next to each other they held hands and pushed and pulled each other off pipes and walls. When they broke apart form each other Gum noticed that while she couldn't see Beats eyes she new he was like he was when she first met him, free and open. Doing what he felt was his right to do. Beat smiled at her and started to go ahead of her. He switched in mid grind to a reverse grind and jumped from the pipe to wall to pipe then reverse flip to the last pipe and skidded to a halt on the pipe Z-ro and Jules were balancing on. Beat flashed a V-sign at Gum. 

Gum laughed and grinded up to a corner of a wall and grinded on wall then leapt to another then to the pipe that the highest skilled bladers and rudies sat on. She slowed down but almost lost her balance when she stopped Beat grabbed her shoulder to steady her and both looked at Jules who was laughing hysterically.

Tabs' body was in pain when he woke up. He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't yell, then opened his eyes. Suddenly, he realized he was laying on a hospital bed with his face breathing through a pillow. He tried to get up but a gentle hand pressed his back and forced him to the bed. He was only able to turn his head away from the pillow. "You?"

Silphie huffed and said weakly, "I just came to see if you were o.k. It didn't look alright when you collapsed last night. Some metal scrap slashed your back, you got over a hundred stitches." 

Tab flinched aware of the tingling sensation of skin being pulled to his cut. Then the sudden air against his bare back. He reddened and looked away from Silphie. "They didn't even leave me a towel to cover my ass? Geez maybe I should start paying Doc." He weakly tried to push himself up and on his third try was able to get to a sitting position on the bed.  


"You had one but it fell to the floor. I didn't have the heart to wake you up if I laid the towel back on your bare-" she breathed as she looked at the length of his body. "ass." Silphie smiled at him.

Tab grimaced at her look then said, "I guess the rest of the GG's are at the garage?" Tab began to become more aware of his surroundings. He looked at the I.V. bag and disconnected his arm from it.

"Yeah, the last one left over an hour ago. The Doc said when you woke up you can go, You just needed some fluids from the blood loss. He'll cover up everything in paper work later." Tab nodded, leaving the bed with small steps to the blinds to change clothes. He silently swore as he placed on his coveralls.

"You aren't supposed to be wearing a shirt for a few days." Tab peeked over the blinds to look at her. She smiled sweetly. "Docs' orders." Tab shook his head but pulled a fuzzy belt from a hospital robe and tied it around his waist. When Tab came back around he was bare chest with the top half of his coveralls laying back over the pant half. He raised the top line of his cap to look at Silphie.

She smiled again. Tab felt an awkward moment where he couldn't really say anything under her gaze. "Thanks for coming to see me. Nice to know that you cared." 

"Yeah, well we should do it again sometime." She winked at him then got up from the chair she had been sitting in. Tab didn't realize how close she had been sitting next to him. _How long was she here?_ He suddenly thought to himself.

He gave an unconvincing cough and made his way to the door, rudie blades in his hands. Tab hurried out the door when he felt her stare at his back and only did a slight head turn to confirm she was staring at him.

When he left she laughed. The Doc came into the room and asked her. "Why is he not wearing a shirt? This is a hospital." 

Silphie smiled at him just as sweetly as she smiled at Tab. "He thinks that you didn't want him to wear a shirt."

"But I didn't say anything like that."

"He doesn't know that." Silphie decided Tab was cute.

"Ahh." He smiled and started to clean up the room. And erased the information on the clip board at the foot of the bed.

"I don't believe it." Beat said in amazement.

Gum laughed, "You sound like some of the bladers when they saw Z-ro up here." Gum looked down below them. Thirteen bladers were only shy ten or so feet of getting up to them only to loose balance or run out of pipe or speed, or some other technique to get them to the very top. 

Jules was laughing the whole time. "Well I have to say thanks to you guys. I thought we would be doing this for a few more months but it looks like you made these guys break a barrier they all had." Jules looked over to Troy. 

"Heh, to be honest I do have to put my foot in my mouth since you guys did make it to the top after I pressured you into doing it. I was just peeved someone beat me ( no pun intended Beat) ." Green eyes scanned the three rudies that made it possible for all the bladers to move ahead in their training.

"Hey um Jules how much weight can this pipe hold?" Gum was eyeing the pipe after one blader actually made it to the pipe and lost balance as he slowed to them. "Ouch that must be painful to get this far only to fall." There were laughs as the guy landed on steep sloping pipe and started going back up again.

"I don't think it can hold much more weight, we have five guys on here already." Z-ro stood up from his crouch and waved to the guys before leaning back and did a free fall head first to the ground only to jackknife his body into a deep toe out grind to the ground. 

"So does showing off just come naturally to your family?" Beat asked repressing laughter. 

"As far as I can tell yeah, it does." Jules grinned and held his tray and bowl from his long forgotten lunch in his right hand. He let them dropped then jumped grinding fast to catch up to them all while avoiding bladers going in the opposite direction. By the time he got to the bottom he caught his tray, plate and bowl. Z-ro laughed as he went up to his brother and said, "you dropped this bro." Z-ro handed him his cup. All of the bladers in the house laughed.

Beat and Gum gaining new confidence in their own skills decided to go to the bottom in their own stylish way. Beat simply grinded to a wall then jumped towards the ground doing several long tricks on the way, only slowing down when he hit a opposing all. Gum only let her heart rest when she saw him land safely on the floor then smiled. Unlike the others she actually sat on the pipe. With on simple back motion she leaned back and hung from the pipe upside down before letting go legs spread in helicopter spin. Someone shouted "Fan service!" as she fell to the ground. She ignored titters promising long deaths to those who laughed later. Then she caught a pipe low to the ground and did some simple gymnastics that she had to do in school when she was a child.

Beat went up to her and hugged her. Both were energized by the rush of coming down to the ground so fast. She was so happy to be in his embrace she forgot the flogging she planned to give out.


	9. reasoning

Chapter 9

Authors note: Well... now that I don't have a job anymore and I am going to school again and not doing both like the idiot that I was, I have more time to write. For those of you who are still waiting out there, here is chapter 9. Ironically I have written eh next few chapters already I just hadn't gotten around to posting. .; sorry.

Reasoning

"Here we go." Said Tab with a queasy lurch. The G.G. leader stretched out on his stomach and felt the strings being pulled out of his back. A week and a half of being shirtless gave the rudie a sudden tan from the neck to the waist. With only a slightly lighter tan to his face when he realized half way through the week what he would look like if he didn't swallow his pride and take off the cap. The doctor couldn't bring himself to tell the rudie that Silphie had lied to him and was only barely able to suppress his grin when he first saw Tab. When the last stitch that stretched the length of his back was removed, Tab pushed off the table but did not move to put the rest of his coveralls on. "Thinking of keeping it off?" Asked the doctor admiring how well the scar healed.

"Yeah well, after a whole week of feeling like I was running around naked, I got used to it. It's going to feel weird wearing any kind of shirt now. He, at least I know why Garam doesn't like shirts, they do feel cumbersome after being shirtless for so long."

"Cumbersome?" Asked the doc, a smile playing on his face for the third time.

Tab scowled at the word, it was one that Silphie always used. It didn't help much that he had been meeting up with her more often now. After the fight with the Noise Tanks, The Love Shockers and a weak Poison Jam rallied to help them fight against the GG's. Even free roaming rudies were beginning to dislike the GG's. It was slowly taking more than one G.G. a day to cover their turf.

"It's getting ugly on the streets. I need to be able to move better, that's all." Doc smiled and said "Just don't do anything too harsh to your back or they may scar may open. I am amazed they lasted the whole ten days."

Tab grunted then looked at the doctor, "How is Mew and Slate?"

The doctor nodded and leaned against the medical table saying, "Mew is doing great. Her child has no complications so far and she is not on skates leaving the baby safe." The doctor then sighed and said, "Slate is not so good, he has a cast on his leg. He also has severe bruising from his fall along the length of his arms." Tab scowled at the word fall, Slate was pushed in mid jump to land hard on the ground from a roof by angry rudies. The doctor said his good bye then silently slipped out of the old hospital room and resumed his pay job.

Tab turned to leave and felt a pang of guilt. He turned back to get his cap that he had left on the table he had just laid on. Black eyes and a furrowed brow looked at the memento. A girl he used to call his lady gave the hat to him. That girl meant more to him than anything. It has been years since he had **not** worn that hat. Tab sighed when he looked at how aged it was. He crumpled it into his fist and placed it in his pocket before leaving the hospital.

__

It isn't looking good. Tab grinded the parks' length and stopped just before hitting the bridge linking Shibuya downtown. Piranha and Yo-yo were already there, and were chasing out random rudies. The place was covered in large tags saying things like "GG's the stone tear hounds" in bold black and violet letters and "Traitors only live so long" with one of the GG's signature and a cross hair over it. Tab sighed and said aloud, "we need to hurry and get rid of this trash."

Garam yawned and asked, "Why? Police haven't been out for weeks now." Tab almost said something then shut himself up. He didn't think the GG's would appreciate the fact that Silphie had paid a few officials to turn a blind eye. Especially after the Noise Tanks first major act of stupidity. If the Stone Tears could have done that earlier, they would probably not be fighting every other rudie now.

"True but while we are here, someone else is probably tagging somewhere else."

Piranha sighed and pulled two cans off her belt, one in each hand. "Ok at least they are making new graffiti every time they do this; it would be getting old if it were the same exact thing...."

"I still think this is stupid. Why are we just not fighting the stone tears? Come on! Their leader is gone, that chick hasn't done anything to us, I think we should just go and take back Tokyo-to now!" Yoyo glared at Tab who just sighed. Tab was afraid this would happen, that his choices would split the GG's or even break the gang apart.

"How many off the GG's feel this way Yoyo?" Tab was looking at the town and away from the rudie gang members who where in front of him.

Yoyo was stopped before he started by Garam. "I think it is unanimous Tab." Said the dark skinned rudie sadly.

Tab paused before saying, "What do you think would happen if we go and try to take back the last of town?" Tabs voice did not waiver, but he felt that he would soon need to make a hard decision that a leader is supposed to make.

Yoyo perked up and said, "The Stone Tears would be gone! Some of the rudie gangs would come back, and compete with us for turf and life would go back to normal." Tab smiled at the simplicity of his answer.

"What do u guys think? Piranha? Garam?"

Both were surprised by the question. Tab was expecting something from them and they floundered for answers. Garam spoke first, "Well like Yoyo said, they will leave, we enjoy ruling the town for a while till we can't hold the whole town anymore or simply give up what we won and stick to Shibuya or make a huge gang like the Stone Tears!" The last idea forming in Garams' mind made him speak faster as he said. "We could form a gang large enough to protect Tokyo-to and have gangs like the Stone Tears never effect us again." He stopped happy with the image that he produced in his head.

It was Tabs turn to look sad. He became suddenly tired of the complaining and bickering and irritated glances he got form his fellow rudies and G.G.'s. He looked up to Piranha hopeful for a voice of reason and asked, "Well, what do you think?"

"I think Garam is onto something, if we can form a gang large enough to counter act the Stone Tears and keep them out of the city, we can keep rudies safe, even normal people would be safe since there would be no more gang fights that might carry over. Plus the police wouldn't be so uptight about us just being around the public, no more fights just the graffiti would be their only problem, and tat will go down if there is only one large gang!"

Tab still did not look at them. He closed his eyes feeling at a loss to these people he thought he knew. These people where not the friends and family he knew. They wanted everything to end and be like it was before the stone tears came. They just want everything to be all right and happy **now**. "YOU IDIOTS!" Shouted Tab. He felt all three jump at his words. Tab looked down from the roof he stood on and looked at people who were happily shopping and doing their jobs, perfectly oblivious to the straining violence that is over their heads.

Tab closed his eyes sorting out what he could say. There were so many reasons that he could not allow his family to do what they want. _And its time that I told them. _He thought savagely to himself. "You really think just because Silphie is not here that the Stone Tears would be a push over? Do you really think that any one would unite with us after we had to put down a rival gang? Do you really **believethat anyone would follow us? Look at that graffiti over there."**

Tab pointed to one of Tabs symbol with a target sight over it. "We have no one but our selves right now. The Stone Tears are a countrywide gang! If we manage to beat the gang here while Silphie is away the truce we formed is off, they will retaliate, we are already out numbered 20 to 1 right now, if they retaliate, they can bring members from all over the country! And don't you guys remember what the last two leaders of the Stone Tears were like before Silphie took over? Are your memories that short? They were both nightmares and it was only two men! Even with all of the rudies combined do you seriously believe a local town gang could stop a gang that has over a hundred thousand members? Beat knew you were not stupid rudies and it is time that you all stop acting like it. Grow up! Beat knew what our situation was and he knew what he had to do to stop it. I would never do something that went against the plans he had worked so hard to keep that allowed rudies and normal people to be safe and out of danger."

Tab felt his head was hot along with the rest of his body. _It must have been building up for a while now _Tab thought to himself _frustration over stupid ideas... at least I was able to voice what I wanted to say. Now it is up to them on how they are going to act on them._ Tab looked at the three rudies. "If that is all you three want to talk to me about then we are done here. Lets go see the rest of GG territory, we have 3 people out of town and 2 more out of commission. We have a lot of work to do." With that Tab skated off the roof and to a power line away from his fellow GG's. Tab felt a lump in his throat knowing that this was only a sign of something that is coming. And what sadden Tab the most is that the threat would not come from the Stone Tears or angry rudies, but from the remaining GG's.

It has been over several weeks since he had lasted talked to his childhood friend. Z-ro laughed at himself. _Being a child… Have I really ever been a child?_ Z-ro decided to go alone back to the WoSo Corp building. When he was younger and had been hunted he had always came here for sanctuary. Hiding under a hundred feet of earth and concrete with a friend in tow always made him feel safe. Z-ro was given names and information of people that the attack was going to concentrate on and it had greatly alarmed him that many of them were in his friend, Adam's company, after what he had read about some of the men that are employed there he told his brother that he would leave ahead to at least get Adam to a safe place. Jules agreed with his brothers wishes and gave him clothes of a bum to walk around freely with. Z-ro counted twenty seven people who where in Adam's company that were corrupt, buying politicians and even some of Adams bladers. Z-ro entered the WoSO corp. building and nodded at the security guard. He recognized one of the bladers that were on the invasion squad for this area. _Damn that was fast if one of them is here then the others are probably in position by now too._ Z-ro walked a little faster and reached the elevator and hit the president floor.

When he exited the elevator he was stopped by one of Adams' bladers, then was waved to move on. He pasted a false smile knowing that it seemed no amount of disguises would help him he was simply too well known in this city. When he entered the main hall way that left him alone he let it fade. He took one right then a left and another left. When he came to the main office it opened on its own and let him in. Adam got out of his chair and excitedly started asking questions. Z-ro smiled weakly and remembered what his brother said as he was leaving walking the entire way back to the city. "_Z-ro I'll give you a day to warn him but we move at dusk the next day."_ A new war was about to break out and no one within fifty miles knew. But that was about to change.

"Adam lets go for a walk." Adam looked at the serious faced Z-ro and nodded. They walked up the stair well and through the various office rooms. Neither of them led both knowing where they needed to go. The room they were about to use was only known to a few people. And of them only the most trust worthy.

The last door they opened led to a furnished room with a small table and several seats with only lamps at the corners of the room as the only light source. The windowless room seemed a welcomed shelter from the dark clouds the sky was about to release just outside. Z-ro looked a question at Adam and Adam nodded. "Well you called this meeting. What is it Z-ro?"

"I wanted to speak to you out of the way from other people because I have done some looking into your employees and noted that many of them would not be helpful for what is coming."

Adam nodded know perfectly well the troubles his organization had. "So I take it you did find your brother? And he is planning something big."

Z-ro smiled, "It's huge. You will not be safe here. My brother is planning a hostile take over." Adam looked alarmed. Z-ro added hastily, "Of all the gangs even his own. All three gangs are too corrupt. He believes that the gangs need to start clean as one united gang. We believe that it will flush out all groups who were trying hard to position themselves for control. And we can apprehend them quickly in one final swoop. Many members of all the gangs are passive enough to let this happen and let a new gang take over the whole city, but there are some trouble makers that need to be taken out in the beginning."

Z-ro breathed from the long-winded explanation. "So why are you telling me? Don't get me wrong its nice for the heads up and everything but-"

"You don't understand Adam, with your resources any one could take you hostage and have the corporation fight back for them. We need to get you out of here."

Adam nodded in understanding, "How much time do we have before him and whatever group he has starts their take over."

Z-ro looked grim and said, "30 minutes from when I walked into the building." Z-ro looked at a watch his brother gave him, there was ten minutes left.

Adam stood immediately and smiled, "Cutting it a little close aren't you?" Z-ro laughed "You can thank my brother he made me walk from quite a distance to get here."

Adam took a coat from a coat rack near the door they came in and walked to a wall. "We can leave the building from here." Adam pressed the wall lightly and the wall began to move on a pivot.

Z-ro just looked at his friend with the jealous look he could give. "lead the way batman." Adam gave a light laugh and led Z-ro down a stair case. "The staircase leads strait to small dock where I can be out to sea for a while. How long do you think I will be out?"

Z-ro shook his head, "I don't know could be an hour could be days." Z-ro felt anxious for his friend.

"Well I can make my area go faster" Z-ro nodded glad that his friend had enough influence to be able to help. When the two reached the dock a sailing ship swayed lightly from the waves.

"In fifteen minutes call your office and have them not fight when a group of bladers come. Just surrender. My brothers' team will not be gentle to people who fight back, he wants it made clear that resistance will be crushed." Adam nodded and hopped on to the boat quickly taking off the ropes anchoring it to the dock. "Oh tell your men that the team taking some of your men are a special team that are apprehending several men in your company for intensions of taking over your company. We don't want to start anther fight when those men are captured."

Adam gave a thumbs up as he started his ship engine. A soft humming vibrated the ship lightly. Adam took out a cell phone and tossed it to Z-ro. "Dial 3 to get my ships phone to tell me when everything is calmed down and safe to come back.

"I will. Thanks for understanding and for the help."

"No problem good luck!" The boat engine began to make a slightly higher pitched hum when the ship accelerated out of sight.

"Now I only have one more task to do. God I hate my life." He said feebly.

"Its falling apart." Tab said to himself. Garam looked up to their leader and gave a grim look before laying on the slide to rest. Many of rudies of the town had basically followed what Garam had suggested with the exception that the GG's were also the enemy. The GG leader was loosing sleep over many of the fights he has had to participate in with rudies from all over the town. Tab looked at what was left of his gang. Garam, Combo, Piranha, Yoyo, were the only ones that were able to continue fighting. Everyone else were asleep from exhaustion or still on medical leave. _Or not here. And we still haven't heard a word from Beat or the others. Damn its hard not to think about if they are ok or not._ Tab gritted his teeth and stood.

The remaining G.G.'s were resting in Shibuya park before going out to patrol. _This is impossible._ though Tab for what seemed like the tenth time since they stopped for a rest. _We patrol as a group since so many rudies are ganging up to attack us in hand to hand._ Tab stretched his bare shoulders. His upper body was beginning to become dark brown from the lack of protective covering and ached when ever he moved his back to much. Tab took off his string that tied his hair back away from his face and tightened the pony tail that was forming at the nape of his neck. YoYo shot up from his laying position and shouted, "Guys turn on your radios!"

Tab was surprised and did it without questioning. The bass beats of Jet Set Radio rattled the small speaker of Tabs radio and Professor K's voice came on the speaker. "Its Jet Set Radio! Your news buzzing, beat raising, pirate station man of the streets! Rudies from all of Shibuya, Benten and old rudies of Kogane have risen to fight against the GG's the once hero gang of Tokyo-to! Stone Tears and GG's are still at a stand still and rudies are not happy. When were the streets a democracy? Will the adding pressure and weakening GG's be able to handle both the Stone Tears and the angry rudies fighting for their freedom under the watchful GG's? I don't know about that but I do know the GG's are not out yet! 5 G.G.'s versus all of Tokyo-to will be truly a battle of wills with the victor the leader of the city. High stakes with high costs are on the board and its time for everyone to ante up!" "Everybody jump around" began to play on the radio.

"Tab looked as his Rudies and smiled, "Well you heard the man, lets place our bets. Mine is not to loose to the Stone Tears or the Rudies that have been hassling us." The GG's shouted in agreement and headed off towards Benten to make their patrol. Tab saw a blur behind him and slowed, and let the others go ahead of him. when he came to a complete stop, he knew someone had been following them but was not a group, he could handle one rudie. "Who's there?" Shouted the lone rudie.

"Nice, looks like you are getting battle hardened while I was away, well hardened in general I would say." Tab felt his neck go hot and knew trouble was coming. "Hello Silphie." he sighed out loud.

The girl rudie gave a genuine smile and said, "Having problems I take it. Well while you were stuck here in this backwards town I picked up some news from across the world. Your leader has been a busy little man."


	10. hostile intentions

Chapter 10

hostile intentions

Beat counted down the last seconds before the two rudies along with several other bladers invade a building on the east side of town. "3, 2, 1," Beat counted out in English, he moved his hand to signal for the small cell to move out. Three bladers grinded down the length of the wall of the building to stop people from entering or exiting from the base of the building while the rest came from the top of the building sweeping down looking for their targets. This had been the third mission and the team was slowly working their way down the capitol hill. Beat thought back to the instructions he was given. They were to kidnap three people from this building. One was the leader of this little gang that has connections to all three gangs and linked to Train who had ambitions to control the whole city.

Beat signaled for the team to split up using his hands then signaled for them to use smoke bombs if they encounter a large group. Three bladers split from the main group their in-line's making little noise against the carpeted floors they rolled over. The three stopped in an office room that was attached to the warehouse below them. "Its clear," whispered one blader with a black bandana over his head. The three closed the gap slowly to the door leading to the warehouse. The door ended in a length of stairs that zigzagged down to the bottom floor.

"I don't see any of the people we are supposed to get here either, and only 2 other entrances into that room as well." The girl blader pulled the small bag she carried and pulled out three smoke bombs.

"There are 12 people in the room, we are lucky, that is most of the gang, that means the three targets are most likely in one place having a meeting right now." said the third blader. The bandana blader nodded and the girl threw the bombs into three different locations. When the targets split to investigate the smoke closest to them, the 3 person team moved out. The bandana wearer grinded a wall to another wall to land in the smoke and quickly took out the bladers there with consecutive kicks and punches. The girl grinded the hand rails to a smoke bomb and knocked out her three opponents quickly with an elbow to the neck, two to the gut and one to the face. The third grinded his hand rail and landed on the ground in a low skating position and passed the three foot clearance under the semi-truck that was blocking his way to the last smoke bomb and quickly put down his opponents that were there waiting with kicks to the legs followed by a single fist to each of their faces. All three came to the center of the room when all the smoke dissipated, and looked at the bodies that were laying unconscious. "That was easy!" said the girl blader sweetly.

"Idiot, go check outside and see if the others are ok, signal them that our target is not in the warehouse." The girl nodded and the remaining two bladers explored the last exit the warehouse had. When they confirmed that no one was in it. they joined their friend outside and waited for their cell leader "Beat" to come up with a success.

Beat looked up at the ceiling and back to the hall of locked doors. Beat grind sweetly at Gum and said before she could protest, "Gum, I need you to move into the air duct and see which room our targets are in." Beat whispered. Gum nodded blushing slightly as she realized she would be mooning her panties at Beat for a few seconds. Beat lifted her up to the ceiling and pushed her into the air duct above them. After a minute, Gum came back with a red nose and raised her hand showing four fingers and mouthed out, "The fourth room down. Its locked, I'll unlock after a smoke bomb." Beat nodded and the bladers walked on their in-lines towards the fourth door.

"Sonovabitch!" Beat felt his stomach turn in knots as he heard several loud shouts and a thud against the door before the latch to the deadbolt can unlocked. Gum's face was very red as she said, "They are all out. We got all three in one hit. I am **soo **not going to go through another air duct."

"Why?" Beat looked down at all three men and saw one of them had a stupid smile on his face.

"Two words, 'ass first'." she replied quickly, her face turning a darker red.

Beat smiled and shook his head, "I'll remember that when we get to the next site. Lets go we are ahead by ten minutes it will be good to get a jump on the next targets. You four tie them up and call for pick up. The other down stairs are already tied up." Gum and Beat skated as fast as they could towards the stair well that was the buildings fire escape and grinded the length of the handrails to the bottom floor. The two rudies skidded to a halt at the exit of the building where three bladers form their team were ready to move to the next building a mile south. "Mission successful. Were there anyone who had time to send out a call for help?"

"No, we struck fast enough that most didn't know what was happening." said Jordan as he finished the last of the binding of the outside guards.

Beat smiled and nodded, "Everything is done here, we got four more missions to go! Lets move!" The cell leader looked at the path they would take, it lead along a winding road down the steep hill side. Beat smiled when he thought of having to hit this place any place other than first. Beat set a fast pace for the rest of the team that lead them to grind power lines at a steady angle.

"Beat!" one of the bladers behind him shouted as she tried to move a little faster to be next to him. "We had a shift in plans, I am to take Jordan's place in the next mission."

Beat nodded and asked with out turning towards her, "What happened? An injury?"

The girl blader named Jasmine almost nodded and then realized that he would not see it and said aloud, "Yes, the team on the out side had a little trouble with the external enforcers guarding the building."

"Ok, Is it going to be any different from how Jordan was going to handle the distraction?" Jordan's original job was to flood the next building with smoke bombs.

"No change, I am heading out now." She gave a thumbs up sign that completely countered her shaking lip and nervous eyes. Jasmine jumped from the wire she was grinding to another power line that had a steeper angle and went through trees down the mountain side. Beat saw her exit and smiled another genuine smile as she easily maneuvered around branches and debris on that path. _This is the second time I smiled about this mission, I better stop before I get to the last mission with the same stupid grin as that guy that had Gum knocked out. _Now that he had passed her entry line he was able to see the path the girl needed to take to get ahead of them. Beat sighed shook his head, he had seen her grind the pipes in the final test. _While she had plenty of imagination to go around obstacles she still lacked presence of mind and confidence to do things that would make her stand out as a great blader. Jordan was chosen for this assignment because the route he needed to take was not only difficult but almost impossible but for a few._ Now that Beat saw the path he wondered if he could navigate that obstacle course that went directly down the sloping mountain instead of the winding wires he was leading his team on now.

Gum spoke up when he examined the way, "You think she will be ok?" Beat snapped out of his concentration and jumped form one line to another, flying over a house that the line connected to.

"Yes, its us I worry about, when she hits those bombs her job is done, ours is the hard part. This will be tough simply because of the ruthlessness of this next gang." Beat bit his lip while considering what he would most likely need to do. "Lets speed up so we can organize at the foot of the hill before moving to the next building."

Jasmine dodged several branches. She could see the full length of the path and timed her self along with the obstacles. _Grind. jump left! jump high! duck down! jump!_

The girl had been a blader for a long time but had never done something like this that placed a lot of pressure to perform well down this path to be ahead of the rest of the team. _I can do this!_ She said happily as she cleared the last of the trees and now had to worry about the lack of places to grind with out falling.

Jasmine jumped from the roof of one house to grind along the crest of another for only the barest of a second before she became airborne again. She performed trick after trick to keep her timing and her body in a good gyration to be able to recover he balance and pick of her speed easily. She cleared the last of the roofs that ended the last part of the hill. "I did it!" she said out loud not quite believing herself. She gave herself a stern shook and sprinted towards the hangar and the rats she had to smoke out.

The group abandoned the power lines and rolled off roofs of houses, not caring of the people they disturbed that were sleeping below them. They approached the next building that was a air hangar. The team regrouped and saw Jasmine throw smoke bomb after smoke bomb into the building forcing the occupants out. Beat nodded to Gum and pointed out the next leader. This target had been paying several of Jules men to gain access to police records so he could black mail several people holding public offices. Beat wasn't prepared for the number of people coming out armed with what every they had handy. The group looked more like an old Japanese school gang, than the gangs he has seen since he got here. Beat licked his lips and said, "Everyone listen, there are too many to fight. Everyone zone in on the leader! Do not let him escape, if we can capture the leader we win, its as simple as that. Now move!"

The cell moved at once. The group split into 4 groups of four. The four groups circled the bladers, forcing them to move closer together with flame bombs and moving the leader towards the center where all members of Beats' team knew where he was. The groups charged into the mass of bladers who had knives, pipes and chains. Beat saw two of his group go down as he approached the center. Beat heard a scream as another blader on the opposite side of him went down from a combination of pipes and chains. Beat blocked out all noises of teammates and enemies and locked onto the smirking leader who was laughing at the small group that was attacking them. None of the enemy realized what the goal of this attack was. Beat smashed the face of a near by enemy blader and stole his knife. When he saw a line open slightly towards his target he kicked his skates alive. The sudden burst of speed and the explosion behind it knocked off the surrounding enemies and Beat caught his target in an instant. Beat threw his arm around the mans' shoulders and forced the leaders' neck close to the stolen knife. "Tell your men to stop fighting. You got to the count of three." said Beat calmly while his ears were pounding blood threw small veins. He emphasized the threat with pressing the knife against the mans neck drawing a sliver of blood. Beat breathed, "one, two, thre-"

"PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN NOW!" the mans neck was sweating and his face was a pale white. Gum and two other bladers one, from each group joined up with Beat all with a weapon drawn on him. The men quickly realized what happened and looked tempted to gang up on the group holding their leader hostage. Beat smiled coldly, "If you think about it I will kill him, then there is no point in keeping any of you alive."

As he said it, reinforcements appeared from the trees. Forty bladers surround the gang all holding their own weapons . The men placed down their weapons and laid down on the floor as Gum had instructed them. Three men from the group of reinforcements approached Beat while he tied up the leader.

"Your ahead of schedule, your team was not supposed to do this mission alone." Terra, one of the other leaders, said slightly annoyed.

"Sorry guys I know I was really stupid but I think we need to move faster than what we originally agreed on." said Beat his voice a little shaky and a pale look on his face after what he had to do to stop the fighting immediately.

"What is that?" asked Mike. He was the youngest leader on Jules Team but more skilled at tactics than the rest of the team.

"Well, I had a hunch on the way down here and it proved right." Beat pointed to the weapons the gang had. "If the smoke bombs happened as a surprise attack they would not have had weapons beside them as they ran out of the hangar. They would all have had nothing but their fists. That in itself would have made this mission a lot easier. I think that having all these gangs stop communicating at once is what is alarming the various gangs. Not us just silencing their communications."

Jim the third leader nodded in understanding. "I'll spread word about the problem to other teams, telling them to not just shut down communications but to send one or two messages to different gangs to see if they had heard from gangs we had already captured."

"O.k. now since that problem is out of the way, how are we doing with time. I got 6 people injured from my little stunt." Beat looked at his team apologetically.

"We are still moving ahead of schedule. Jules should be holding control of both free flyers and ghost territory by now since we control all of High Row territory."

Terra spoke up, "Has any one heard a word from Z-ro?" Beat shook his head in concern.

"We can't worry about him now, I am sure he is fine. Beat, I got my team split and both of them went ahead to take over your last assignments, Jules would expect you and Gum to move on ahead of us. We have many of the other targets captured and waiting for police to claim them." Beat nodded and waved Gum over. "Gum we are moving ahead, our team needs a rest, and these guys can split the last of the missions." Gum nodded. "We'll meet you guys at the victory celebration tomorrow! Bye guys." said Beat cheerfully.

The members of his cell and the other cell leaders waved them a quick goodbye as they turned towards downtown. "Gum this might be a little painful if we open our jets to full throttle but I don't think we have a choice, its a long way."

"I know" she smiled nervously. She had never skated at full throttle before but knew her feet burned a lot at three-fourths throttle. Beat knelt and began to mess with the small netrium engine on each inline skate. Gum said, "ready" after she stood up and brushed dirt from her knees. Beat nodded and they both took off. Their skates roaring with noise of burning netrium.

Z-ro had been used to doing things on his own for most of his life. But now that he was a G.G. he found it hard to work and be alone in anything he did. This mission was decidedly put on him since he new the entire city in and out along with his skills as both a blader style skating and a rudies' style of navigating. "Heh, looks like everyone is already on alert here, damn this is going to be annoying." Z-ro unclipped to small balls of dough and started grinding down a power line as fast as he could. The bladers guarding the entrance to the building already spotted him. Z-ro simply smiled as he flicked his thumb over the dough and threw it below him as he passed the two guards. There was a small sizzle before a blinding flash of light enveloped all three of them.

"My eyes!" shouted one of the bladers.

Z-ro was already inside the building and headed for the garage in the back. Several other guards came out of a door and rushed at him as he sped through the hall way. Z-ro jumped and grinded the wall then kicked two of them in the head as he passed by. "Come on guys your so slow!" Cackled Z-ro.

The rudie managed to dodge several other bladers all I'll equipped to handle the speedy intruder. When he came to the garage, he plowed over a final guard and whistled. There sat hundreds of wooden crates filled with what he was told to destroy. The Ghost's armory. Z-ro skated around to make sure this was it and nodded with satisfaction that this was probably most of what the Ghost had in possession. He kicked the guard awake. He took out the seven caned bomb from his bag and said while playing with it "Hey Mr. I am about to blow this up. so you might want to run."

With that he threw the bomb behind him. The guard saw teh bomb go through the air and ran for his life. "Why you running so fast? I haven't started it yet!" he called after him. The bomb landed among the other bombs and cache of assorted weapons that had been banded in the city. "well that is a good place as any." Z-ro took out a knife with a piece of paper wraped around it and lit the end of it. "we so long weapons too bad i don't have a camera this one is going to be bigger than the last one."

Z-ro grinned and walked out of the room threw the knife piecing one of the cans letting the paper soak up the liquids slowly up the paper to the flame at the end of the knife. Z-ro saw that the guard must have spread the word since no one else was in the building. When he skated out, he passed many of the guys he had kicked around a few minutes before. They were about to attack him when the whole building exploded up throwing them all teen feet. The rudie was the only one to land on his feet and made is exit. Z-ro laughed as he made a safe clearance to a roof top before saying. "Damn they must had had more on another level that was two explosions. Well that is 3 armories in 2 hours. Who knew I could be such a good arsonists?" He said gleefully before remembering he had to make it downtown to corner off the final leader. His brothers' third in command, Train.


	11. 3 vs 1 equals Zro

Chapter 11

3 vs. 1 equals Z-ro

Gum and Beat made it to a small building surrounded by skyscrapers in the business district downtown. "Beat, the last mission is complete. We are heading back your way."

"Roger that." Beat clipped the radio back to his waist. Gum gave him a sour look. "What? I love saying that." Gum rubbed her temple. She had a head ache from high screeching her skates made at full throttle. Gum still gave him that look, then shook her head and turned to look back at the last building they were about to attack. Several people were guarding both the roof and floor entrances.

"Should we wait Beat? Doesn't look like anyone else is here yet."

"Damn you guys are fast." Beat smiled and Gum stuck out her tongue at the new comer. "I just gave the order for the remaining leaders to gather here twenty minutes ago. It won't be another ten before any of them finally get here." Jules black trench coat had a single cut the went from the bottom all the way up to the lower part of his shoulders. The two flaps moved around easily as he walked up to the two rudies.

"Its not our fault your so slow brother." Jules, Beat and Gum all turned and saw Z-ro roll up to them and smile. "Mission accomplished." he said happily.

Beat looked at Gum then asked Jules, "What was Z-ro supposed to have done?"

"Your little rudie has been disarming all the gangs in the city." Beat gave an approving nod to Z-ro who grinned back even wider.

"High Rows was the hardest you would think they would run when a bomb is about to go off, but they just kept trying to pull me down as the bomb went off. Go figure."

"Idiot." said Jules fondly.

"Is this the last one then?" Beat turned to Jules.

After a pause Jules said, "Yes, and the hardest to." Jules looked meaningfully at a very grim Z-ro.

"Who is this guy Train we are looking for?"

When Jules didn't say anything, Z-ro sighed out, "He was a friend." Gum patted his shoulder. " I think we are good enough without waiting for the others." Ignoring Gums comforting hand he took a deep breath. "We know the building well enough if we coming in through there we should be just above the conference room. Lets make this last one quick."

Jules nodded and all four of them dashed off the roof and flew into the third story breaking the windows in their wake on their man hunt for Train.

LTLTLTLTLTL

A beefy man on blades screeched to a halt as he entered the confrence room. "Train! We got intruders on the third floor."

Train growled. "Handle it!" Trained motioned for several people to move. "I won't be stopped now! Not when I am this close. I don't care who it is, kill them! Clear this room! I'll need room. When you close those doors I do not want anyone to come in here do you got that? If one person comes in here you will have hell to pay." He popped his neck and put on the fire proof vest and was ready for the attackers to try and arrest him like they did for everyone else. He had no intention of going anywhere.

TLTLTLTLTL

Beat, Gum, Z-ro and Jules had spread out on the cubicle office floor they landed on. It was not long before several bladers came in equipped with knives. "Kill them!" Shouted the leader. Fifteen men on inline skates charged the four intruders.

Beat dodged three that attacked him easily and disarmed each one with a punch, or a netrium kick to their arms. He flinched when he hit some one too hard with a kick and heard a bone crack.

Gum had a hard time with three bladers who were more interested in cutting up her clothes than killing her. She finally threw a chair at one and kicked the second one square in the Jimmy, and open palmed fisted the third in the jaw. For the second time in ten minutes Beat flinched as he saw the man holding his crotch.

Z-ro made circles around the slower bladers and finally kicked two into the wall leaving craters where they hit. The final one charged at Z-ro only to be trip and thrown into a desk. Z-ro dusted off his hands and checked to see if the other were alright.

Beat and Gum stared as Jules was fighting the leader of the group. Beat didn't notice that Jules carried a night stick but he had one in hand and moved like he was on fire. The flaps of his jacket flew out to his sides like wings and it suddenly occurred to Beat why Jules was called the dark angel. Jules finally knocked out the man he was fighting when another one came in armed with a semi automatic. Jules only had enough time to say, "Get down!" before shots were fired.

"Sonovabitch!" cried all three rudies in turn. They all ducted and felt the air cutting above their heads.

"Any ideas?" asked Gum. She moved herself to see where the man was.

Beat looked at the man. He stood right at the entrance of the door there was nothing near him they could take as cover or distract him with that wasn't one of them. Beat smiled at Gum giving her a hopeful look. "I got no clue." He said, trying to sound positive.

Gum glared at him then said, "I hate you."

Jules wasted little time hiding and charged the attacker. Jules twisted his wrist and a small shield that matched Z-ro's opened. Jules yelled while throwing his arm shield. The shield hit squarely against the gun knocking it away from Jules for a few precious moments for the blader to close the gap. Jules launched several fast punched in the stomach to face to chest. The man collapsed to the ground. Jules picked up the weapon and looked it over distastefully. "You can get up now guys." He ran to the door and expected to be fired at. No one did, but he knew that there would be more people with guns.

"This is Great. Guys go into the other room for a second and take cover we need to get to the floor below us." Z-ro all but dragged Beat and Gum hurriedly into the next room. Beat and Gum pressed themselves against the wall next to the door. When they didn't see Z-ro next to them, Beat looked to the rest of the room. Z-ro just turned over a heavy desk. "What the hell are you two doing? When he says take cover he means take cover."

Gum just looked at Z-ro to see if he was joking. He wasn't. She ran towards the downed desk and nimbly jumped over it sitting behind the length wood. Beat just rolled over and sat next to Z-ro, trying to soothe already frayed nerves of his almost girlfriend.

Jules saw that they had taken cover and pointed the semi automatic at the ground. He fired and held a small circled as his target until it was a small crater burring into the floor. Jules looked up when he heard feet running up the stairs. He looked back down to his target and continued firing. Without looking, he moved his hand into a small pocket at his hip and threw a ball at the door. The ball bounced against the door then the wall and down the stairs when an explosion shook the walls for a few seconds. Jules walked with out hurry and kicked the door shut and locked it.

Gum saw the exchange when she looked to see what Z-ro's brother was doing. She duct back behind the desk glaring at Beat. Beat just looked at her stupidly. Gum sighed and looked up to the sky saying to no one in particular. "Do I just attract the idiotic ones?" She heard a joyful cackle from behind her and saw Jules jump over the desk knelt next to them. The ground shook suddenly and Gum didn't even notice she could not hear until she tried to ask what the blader did. After a few seconds Jules led them to the other room. The walls were shredded from the debris. A ten foot hole that led to the next floor below them sat in the middle of the room. Jules jumped down followed by Beat. Z-ro looked at her before he followed. "I hate everybody." She said to herself finally able to hear again. Then she jumped down the hole.

The four were able to regroup before the cloud of dust settled and looked around. All furniture was pushed to the side. The room looked empty except for one person standing in the head chair where the conference table should have stood.

"Welcome back Zero. I am glad you came back. I can get one more shot at you." Z-ro glared at Train. Train was only two years older than Z-ro. lighter hair and finer facial features made him look unsuited to be in his line of work. His voice betrayed his looks when he said aloud, "No one will disturb us. They are too busy looking for you." Train looked at his former leader. "I always knew you would have your little brother lead." He spat out bitterly. Gum and Beat moved forward. Jules moved his arm in front of them, shaking his head.

Z-ro moved ahead. He took off bag of cans and extended his shield. "You wanted this so much? Its your own damn fault you know!" Z-ro shouted at his former friend.

The two came to close quarters and circled each other. both had their hands empty and showed their arms and palms facing their opponent. They still circled when they both charged towards each other. Z-ro kick slide towards Trains legs. Train jumped and pulled out a can and light the instant flame thrower. Z-ro raised his shield arm to block the flames. When he got close enough that he was directly under Train he reached and grabbed Trains free arm while he was still in mid-air and pulled hard. Train landed in a heap giving Z-ro time to recover and get a few feet distance.

"I guess I should explain why its just those two fighting." Beat was fixed on the fight but nodded when Jules waited for a response.

Gum turned to him an asked. "Why is this so important to Z-ro? He just as that 'I can't loose face'". She looked to Beat. She had seen him wear that same expression a number of times.

"Do you know how Z-ro got his name?"

Gum shook her head. Beat folded his arms and continued to watch the fight. Neither one of them were letting up. Z-ro pulled out a knife and slashed Trains can forcing them both to back away as the can caught fire and exploded.

"I already told you that Train was my third in command. Joseph, he met the three of you the first night you came here, is my second in command. He was the one who told me that you were in town. Then there is me, the leader. I regrettably spoke highly of Gered when I started the Free Flyers to Train and Joseph. I complained how Gered wasn't interested in blading like I was. That I wanted him to take over if anything happened to me. That was my mistake. I am usually careful with who I choose to be one of my commanders. Train was ambitious and had the patience to wait. But he lost the patience when he heard that I wanted to pass the leadership over to Gered who had no skill in blading." Jules stopped and looked at the two fighters critically. Gum looked back to the fight. Cans littered the floor and several pieces of metal had scratched the tiling. Z-ro and Train both paused catching their breath.

Gum wanted to step in and help but knew better than to act on the impulse. She turned to Jules and asked, "So why is he called Z-ro?"

Jules looked away from the fight. "I was considered number one. Not just in the gang but the whole city. Train had leaked the info out of what I wanted to do. I had no intention on actually doing it. I was venting to two trusted friends. Gered started coming home beaten on a daily basis. I tried to stop it. I fought Train and beat him to a pulp. The fight was big news, I think people thought it just confirmed that I really wanted Gered to lead after me. So the attacks continued. It was the first time I failed to do anything and it really did hurt that I couldn't help him. I found him one day while he was changing clothes and recognized marks of cans and blader wheels on his body. When Gered didn't say anything when I asked him, I left a brand new pair of blades for him in his room. I didn't say anything when he started to train himself. He took his beatings and when he got home he practiced. Many members of Ghost, High Rows and even my Free Flyers harassed him. The great blader who would become greater than the number one 'Dark Angel'." Jules stopped lost in his own thoughts. When he spoke again his voice held a certain amount of awe. "Gered was labeled Zero. The one blader that was better than me. It was a cruel joke to those who were jealous and angry that this little boy would become the city leader if I wanted him to." Jules looked down sadly. "Gered hated the name, but took it in stride. He became better than most regular bladers. Then, when people started to notice that he really was getting good, they hunted him down even more." Jules laughed for the first time since he started speaking. "They really did create the person who could surpass me, and it scared the living hell out of them."

Beat who had made no effort to look away front the fight turned then and looked at Jules. Jules hard lined face watched the fight continue.

Z-ro kicked hard into trains side before moving back away to gain some distance before Train could grapple him. Z-ro looked down at his left arm is was limp and numb. He unlatched the metal shield from it and felt a tingle in his fingers telling him he might get his arm working soon.

Train charged in again. Gered blocked the attack of the right hook with his right hand. He felt himself weaken suddenly. train had nailed a square punch against his kidney.

Z-ro felt the last of his energy go with the last hit he took. Train was just more experienced at fighting. Gered swallowed hard and dodged a knee and threw his last can of spray paint at his enemy. The desperation attack landed on Trains temple, Trained went down. Z-ro noticed that Train didn't immediately get up and realized suddenly that Train must be as tired as he felt. The can laid next to the stunned commander the cap and lid broken and gas was being expelled from the can. Z-ro dashed with the last of his strength closing the gap across the room. Train began to move and Gered kicked his blades on light energy flared from his feet. Z-ro turned and grind halted infront of the can the last of the flaring wheels ignited the can and it launched itself like a missile towards the half standing Train. train took the speeding can in the stomach and was launched off his feet and against the wall before the can went up to the ceiling and exploded in a small fizzle of left over paint.

Z-ro panted and fell to the ground on his ass when he saw that Train had been knocked out. Gum ran up to Z-ro and helped him up. Beat went to go check to make sure the enemy was truly unconscious. He waved for Jules that he was and picked him up and carried the dead weight on his back. Jules pulled out his cell phone and called someone. "We got the last one, but we are still in enemy territory, and they are still armed."

Jules turned to the door that now began to open. Gum stood in front of an exhausted Z-ro. Joseph popped his head in the room and asked innocently, "You guys done yet? We are getting bored now that we are done out here." Jules looked at his cell phone and looked like he wanted to say something. He gave an irritated sigh and put it away.


End file.
